56 Geological Society. 



Mr. James Hardie evinced in early life a taste for natural history. 

 Educated at Edinburgh, he founded the Plinian Society in that 

 city, and contributed largely to its Museum. In 1784? he embarked 

 for India, and served in the Bheal campaign ; he was afterwards ap- 

 pointed the Residency Surgeon at Odeypoor, and made a survey of 

 the neighbourhood. In his visits to Calcutta he acquired the 

 friendship of the most distinguished geologists of the East ; he be- 

 came a member of the Medical and Physical Society, and contributed 

 many papers to their Transactions. A survey of his route on one 

 occasion from Calcutta to Bombay, and thence to Odeypoor, will 

 be found in the Transactions of the Asiatic Society, of which he 

 was also a member. In 1830, he made a voyage round the Indian 

 Archipelago, with a view to the recovery of his health. He passed 

 six months at Java, and paid much attention to the geology of that 

 island. On his return to Scotland he presented his collection to the 

 Museum at Edinburgh. Professor Jameson recommended him to 

 the East India Company as a fit successor to the appointment held 

 by the late Dr. Turnbull Christie. Mr. Hardy repaired to Paris in 

 1833 for the purpose of prosecuting bis geological studies, and died 

 there in May following at the age of 31. 



In reviewing the geological labours of the year I shall advert prin- 

 cipally, but not exclusively, to those of our own members, and the 

 order of precedence will be regulated by the nature of the respective 

 papers, without any reference to date*. 



Mr. Murchison, in prosecution of the work in which he has been 

 so long and actively engaged, has communicated to us his observa- 

 tions on the detritus that covers the old red sandstone in Hereford- 

 shire and its vicinity. All the detritus, he says, seems to be derived 

 from neighbouring rocks. Granite boulders are nowhere found within 

 its area, but they occur of large dimensions and of various sorts upon 

 its northern confines ; he states generally that they appear to have 

 come from the North. Many, if not all of them, may I believe be 

 identified with the granitic rocks of Westmoreland and Cumberland. 

 Several of those I have observed on the north of Shrewsbury have 

 the character of the Irton rather than of the Shap granite. The de- 

 tritus of the old red sandstone is ascribed to the operation of dif- 

 ferent causes, some of which may perhaps require further study. 



From Mr. Strickland we have received three communications re- 

 specting certain bones of extinct quadrupeds associated at Crop- 

 thorne in Worcestershire, with existing species of shells. On a base 

 of lias clay reposes a layer of fine sand containing twenty-three 

 species of land and freshwater shells, together with rolled and broken 

 bones of the Ox, Deer, Dog, Bear, and Hippopotamus. Upwards 

 this sand passes into gravel undistinguishable from the so-called di- 

 luvium. These shells are found at five or six different localities 

 within the Vale of Evesham. Two of the species are thought to be 



* [Abstracts of the papers read before the Geological Society during the 



East year, and referred to in Mr. Greenough's Address, have been given in 

 ond. and Edinb. Phil. Mag., in the last two and present volumes, — iv. v 

 vi. Edit.] 



