514 Geological Society, 



cester Railway. In a country like this, in which the order and 

 boundaries of the strata are, for the most part, well ascertained, an 

 additional accuracy of measurement, of great value to us, may be 

 supplied by the operations of civil engineers employed on canals, 

 roads, and the like works. With this persuasion, and acting with 

 the advice of the Council, I wrote letters to a great number of engi- 

 neers, begging them to communicate to us the levels and sections 

 which they might obtain in the course of their professional employ- 

 ments; and I am happy to see so excellent an example as Mr. Burr's 

 paper supplies, of the advantage which may be derived from mate- 

 rials of this class. 



2. Foreign (South European and Trans-European) Geology, — In pro- 

 ceeding beyond the Alps, and still more as we advance beyond 

 the shores of Europe, we can no longer, so far at least as geo- 

 logists have hitherto discovered, trace that remarkable correspond- 

 ence of the strata of different countries which we can study 

 so successfully in our home circuit. With the mountain masses 

 of those more distant regions we are, it would seem, hardly author- 

 ised as yet in making any more detailed distinctions than the 

 general one of secondary and tertiary strata; the latter including 

 the strata in which we trace an approach to the existing species of 

 animals, and the former implying a general comparison with our 

 chalk, oolites, and lower strata. Perhaps we may further distinguish 

 in most countries which have been visited, a great mass of transition 

 slates ; but the establishment of such divisions must be the business 

 of geological observers. 



We have had several valuable additions to this portion of our know- 

 ledge, including, as we must do, Greece and its islands in this foreign 

 district. That the Apennine limestone is the predominant mass of the 

 Morea, had been made known by the researches of MM. Boblaye 

 and Virlet. Mr. Strickland and Mr. Hamilton have told us that the 

 same rock forms a large mass of the island of Zante and other islands 

 in that sea, and of the neighbourhood of Smyrna. They find also 

 tertiary beds, as on the south side of the bay of Smyrna ; on the 

 east side of the island of Zante ; and at Lixouri in Cephalonia, where 

 the tertiary beds are remarkable for the number and beauty of their 

 fossils, some of which have been identified with species existing in 

 the Mediterranean*. Dr. Bell, who travelled from Teheran to the 

 shores of the Caspian, has given us an account of the rocks which 

 he observed in Mazanderan. From the statements made by him, we 

 are led to believe, that a more continued and detailed observation of 

 the country would give the true geological order of the deposits 

 in this region; which might then, perhaps, serve as a connecting link 

 between western Asia and Indiaf- 



It is among the favourable omens for the geology of India, of 

 which we now see many, that a temperate, spirit of generalization 

 has recently been applied to the examination of her soil ; a spirit 



[* See present vol. p. 209.] 



ft Notices of Dr. Bell's paper, and of others referred to by the President, 

 will appear in future numbers.] 



I 



