94 PROCEEDINGS OF SOCIETIES. 



sufficient to develop the results which his known zeal and skill in Geo- 

 logy would probably have led to. 



Geological science has also to regret the removal by death of the Very 

 Rev. Dean Buckland, to whose exertions the early progress of English 

 Geology was so largely due. His loss is felt wherever the science of 

 Geology is cultivated, and the detailed account of his labours will natu- 

 rally be given by the President of the Geological Society of London, of 

 which he was so distinguished an ornament. 



Our papers continue to be most valuable, and we have during the 

 past year published a larger amount of them than any previous year, 

 owing to the liberality of the Board of Trinity College, and other reasons 

 which have been adverted to in the Report of the Council. It is not my 

 intention to give a detailed summary of all the papers written by our mem- 

 bers and associates ; but there are some of so great importance that it is 

 due to the interests of Science not to pass them over in silence. In the first 

 place, our thanks are due to the patriarch of Irish Geology, Dr. Griffith, 

 for the new edition of his " Irish Geological Map," which has just issued 

 from the press. It would be presumption on my part to attempt an 

 eulogium on this great work, now in the possession of an European repu- 

 tation. 



Mr. Kelly's paper on the Palaeozoic Rocks of Ireland is a most valu- 

 able one. With his accuracy and perseverance, great light must be 

 thrown on the relations of these difficult rocks. He states that the Irish 

 Old Red Sandstone is distinct from the Brownstone of the south (which 

 is, according to him, a member of the Silurian formation), and that it is 

 found always uncomformable to these underlying strata, but conformable 

 to the coal-measures above. The conclusions he draws, both from 

 stratigraphical grounds and from a comparison of the fossils contained in 

 it, are, that it is an integral part of the Carboniferous System, and does 

 not, as contended by Sir Charles Lyell, with regard to the British De- 

 vonian rocks, constitute a passage or gradual change from the Silurian 

 to the Carboniferous System, and partake of the nature of both in fossils 

 as well as rocks. Mr. Haughton's paper on the Lower Carboniferous Beds 

 of the Peninsula of Hook, in the county of Wexford, strongly confirms 

 Mr. Kelly's views. This is one of the most important questions affecting 

 Irish Geology, and one to which I request your continued and earnest 

 attention. 



Dr. Kinahan has added considerably to our knowledge of the organic 

 remains contained in the Cambrian strata by his observations on the 

 Rocks of Bray Head, where he has discovered the traces or burrows of 

 some annelidan borer. This discovery is particularly interesting, as 

 these tracks are associated with the Oldhamia, which are found most 

 abundantly both above and below them. With this subject is most 

 closely connected the paper of Mr. Salter, who, in the Proceedings of 

 the London Geological Society, describes various fossils which have been 

 found by him in the Longmynd rocks of Shropshire. They consist of : — 



1 . Markings resembling the holes of marine worms. They are very 

 numerous, and are always parallel in pairs ; also tracks of worms. 



