NaUiral Historij in London, 259 



Marshfield, Kingston St. Michael, and Lynham, to the Chalk-downs north 

 of Calne and Cherhill ; and on the south and south-east, from the south 

 of Radstock, through Frome and Westbury, to Devizes. The author refers 

 to the works of Mr. Smith, and of Messrs. Conybeare, De la Beche, and 

 Phillips, as the principal published authorities on the district ; and states 

 his obligations for much valuable information to the Rev. B. Richardson of 

 Farleigh, near Bath. 



Feb. 20. At the Annual General Meeting the Report of the Council on 

 the finances, presents, and other matters, was read, and an address delivered 

 by the President. The government have granted this Society apart- 

 ments in Somerset House, which have been fitted up under the direction 

 of Mr. Decimus Burton, well known for his skill and taste as an archi- 

 tect, and who has declined receiving any pecuniary compensation. Mr. 

 William Phillips, one of the authors of Geological Outlines of England and 

 Wales, and Dr. Wollaston, author of an Elementary Introduction to Mine- 

 ralogy and of various other works, and who has left lOOO/. to the Society, 

 have died during the past year; and a considerable part of the speech is 

 devoted to an account of their geological labours and merits, and of the 

 regret of the Society at their loss. 



In adverting to the progress which geological research has made during 

 the past year in this country, the President follows the descending order of 

 the strata in our series ; and refers to the Tabular View of our Stratification, 

 of which Mr. De la Beche has recently published a second edition, for one 

 of the most convenient and succinct views of the present state of our know- 

 ledge respecting them. 



" A complete account of the deposits which appear on the coast of Suf- 

 folk, and other parts of the eastern shore of England, especially of that 

 which has been denominated Crag, is still a desideratum of importance in 

 the history of our strata. The publications of Mr. Robberds and Mr. R. C. 

 Taylor have given some information of considerable value upon this tract : 

 but a general account of it, combining the local phenomena with those of 

 analogous deposits in other quarters, is still to be wished for; and from the 

 connection of the facts which our eastern shores exhibit, with some of the 

 great questions touching the true theory of the diluvial accumulations, an 

 acquaintance with them is almost necessary to the removal of some of the 

 numerous difficulties which still attend that subject. 



" Mr. Webster has announced a new work upon the Isle of Wight : in 

 which, under the simple form of a guide to that most interesting island, he 

 proposes to illustrate fully its topography and geology; particularly the 

 relations of the strata immediately above the chalk. 



" The true order of the beds between the chalk and the oolitic series, 

 which has been the subject of much recent enquiry and discussion, appears 

 now to be generally recognised ; and considerable light has been thrown 

 upon that remarkable group, united principally by zoological relations (for, 

 raineralogically, its members are sufficiently distinct), which occurs between 

 the lowest of the beds denominated green sand, and the oolite of Portland. 

 The succession, though the beds are not continuous, has been shown to 

 be uniform throughout England, from Norfolk southwards, and to be the 

 same, in fact, with that long since enounced, though with much variation 

 of nomenclature, by Mr. William Smith, in his Geological Maps of the 

 English Counties. 



" A full and elaborate Catalogue of the Fossils of Sussex has been con- 

 tributed by Mr. Mantell ; whose labours as a geologist, amidst the duties 

 of an arduous profession, have long been so useful to the public, and so cre- 

 ditable to himself. This valuable paper will be published in the next por- 

 tion of our Transactions. Mr. Martin of Pulborough in Sussex, another 

 member of the same profession, has published a detached Memoir, the 

 developcmcnt of a Paper read here during the last session ; which, besides 



