564 president's address. 



consider the remarkable contour of its bed, and the great depths 

 which the soundings have shown to exist at no great distance from 

 our shores, we may also infer what marvellous variety there 

 must be in our marine fauna and flora. 



In contemplating this rich field, the interest of the naturalist 

 increases almost to excitement when he remembers that both upon 

 the land and in the ocean exist very ancient forms of life linking 

 the present with the distant past; for he here feels himself to be in 

 a region where geological changes have not been so complete 

 as in many other portions of the globe, and that therefore the law 

 which has regulated the gradual out-growth of the present from 

 the past may be studied here perhaps with greater advantage than 

 elsewhere. 



My predecessors in the Presidential office to which you have 

 done me the honor of election, have addressed you upon several 

 of the subjects just alluded to ; and as they have referred to the 

 practical issue attending the work of this Society in connection 

 with certain industries, I beg that I may be permitted to add a 

 few observations bearing more particularly upon a subject of great 

 scientific and national interest, I mean Economic Geology. 



As I shall have to make reference to the different geological 

 formations, I will here mention them in their relative order of super- 

 position. 



Recent 



Pleistocene 



Pliocene 



Miocene 



Eocene 



Cretaceous 



Clarence series (Jurassic 1 ?) 



Wianamatta series ) /m . . „ 

 riassic 1 



}(Ti 



Hawkesbury series 

 Upper Coal Measures (Permian) 1 

 Lower Coal Measures (Carboniferous) 

 Devonian 

 Silurian 

 Basalt, Diorite, Serpentine, Porphyry and Granite. 



