470 Geological Society. 



their analogies with existing races * and he it was who, from their 

 scattered bones, remodelled the skeletons of those wondrous originals 

 which have successively passed away from the surface of our planet. 



Those among us who have enjoyed the honour and delight of so- 

 cial intercourse with this great man will ever remember his suavity 

 of manner, — his lucid power of exposition, — in short, that intellec- 

 tual bearing which served to impress all listeners with the feeling, 

 that every province of natural truth was within the grasp of his mighty 

 thought. 



The extent to which English geologists have profited by his in- 

 structions is recorded in the volumes of your Transactions, and a 

 mere recapitulation of such of his writings as illustrate our subject is 

 uncalled for on this occasion j but I cannot avoid remarking, that a 

 Memoir on Zootomy, lately read before us, has proved a posthumous 

 tribute to his fame. Of all the comparisons which he had instituted 

 in his Ossemens Fossiles between the lost and living species, no one 

 showed more ingenuity, and deep acquaintance with the laws of ani- 

 mal ceconomy, than that in which he pointed out the close analogy 

 subsisting between the gigantic Megatherium of South America, and 

 the existing tribe of Sloths. 



Well, therefore, may English geologists rejoice, that the discovery 

 of another individual of this species has enabled one of our Fellows, 

 eminent for his skill in comparative anatomy, to confirm the views of 

 our great zoological master. 



Thus, Gentlemen, the name of Cuvier, associated, as it has been, 

 with discoveries forming the true basis of geology, is also interwoven 

 with the most recent advances of this Society j and, as an appeal is 

 now made to the naturalists of all nations to unite in a tribute to his 

 memory, may those who have reaped such fruits of his genius, and 

 are so justly proud of having sympathized in his living fame, hasten 

 to record their obligations on the pedestal of that monument which is 

 to be erected on the field of his greatest glory. 



I now proceed to lay before you a sketch of the progress of geology 

 in our own country during the past year. Deviating from the chrono- 

 logical order in which the different memoirs were considered at the 

 last anniversary, I shall on this occasion, for the sake of greater per- 

 spicuity, class them under scientific heads : in so doing, I shall en- 

 deavour to connect our advances with the general progress of geology 

 upon the continent, by passing allusions to such works of foreigners 

 as the active nature of my own employment has permitted me to 

 consult. 



Recent Deposits. — In the class of historic alluvia, the Rev. J. 

 Yates has described a partially submerged and ancient forest near the 

 mouth of the river Dovey, chiefly composed of the Pimis sylvestris> 

 and supposed to have been destroyed by the accidental demolition 

 of a sea-dyke. A similar case of a submerged wood had previously been 

 traced on the shores of Hampshire by Mr. C. Harris, who in commu- 

 nicating the discovery to Mr. Lyell, has proposed a most ingenious 

 and probable explanation of the cause of these appearances *. 

 * Principles of Geology, vol. ii. p. 274, Second edition. 



