Geology and Physical Geography, 311 



great overlying coal-fields. Seeing the facts now in this 

 light, and M. Elie de Beaumont having introduced a new 

 epoch of disturbance into his classification. Sir Roderick con- 

 sidered the subject to be one eminently meriting discussion at 

 a meeting of the British Association, in order to test the 

 application of such periods of dislocation to the carboniferous 

 series of England, Scotland, and Ireland, — it being under- 

 stood that in many tracts of Britain no apparent unconform- 

 ability had yet been observed between the carboniferous lime- 

 stone and the overlying coal-fields. The existence of such 

 dislocations in some regions, and their non-occurrence in 

 others, bear out, he maintains, the view he has long con- 

 tended for, that all dislocations are local only, when viewed 

 in a general sense. Phenomena, for example, which are true 

 in France and central Germany, do not apply to Russia or 

 the British Isles. 



The Chairman, Professor Jameson, made some remarks 

 on these interesting phenomena. 



Professor Phillips, addressing the Chairman, said, that 

 the ideas that had been put forth by Scotchmen on the sub- 

 ject of geology were felt in all parts of the world, and that 

 his (the Chairman's) teaching was still felt and gratefully 

 acknowledged ; and he accounted it an honour to fight under 

 the banner that was carried by his hand. Although he de- 

 sired to be accounted a palaeontologist, yet he would remind 

 them that there were other considerations to be taken into 

 account than the nature of the fossils, viz., the geological for- 

 mations. He had been asked a question respecting the rela- 

 tion of the carboniferous limestone to the coal measures. In 

 England there was such an easy gradation that they could 

 not well be separated. But the type in England was useless 

 for Scotland. General inferences could not be drawn from 

 limited data. 



Prof. E. Forbes read an account of " the Succession of Strata 

 and Distribution of Organic Remains in the Dorsetshire Pur- 

 becks." — These observations were made in the autumn of 1849, 

 in conjunction with Mr Bristow. The formation had been pre- 

 viously described in various memoirs by Prof. Webster, Dr 

 Fitton, Dr Buckland, and Dr Mantell, but not very minutely ; 



