j>0. 5.] NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY. 291 



time of more specialized types, and thus that higher forms of 

 3ow types, precede higher types and are often replaced by them. 

 We are further, as the relation of varieties an 1 species is inves- 

 tigated and their extension in time traced, bicomiug more and 

 more convinced of the marvellous permanenae of specific types, 

 find of their powers of almost indefinite propagation in time. 

 Lastly, vast stores of facts are being accumulated as to the 

 migration of species from one area to another and as to the 

 .connection of the great secular elevations and subsidences of 

 continents with their introduction and extinction. All these 

 are substantial gains to science, and the time is at hand whea 

 they will lead to more stable theories of t le e-irth than tho:«e 

 now current. If I am not greatly mistaken, these considerations 

 ■or some of them will be found to cover the case recently so much 

 insisted on of the Tertiary predecessors of the modern Horse ; a 

 -case which includes a great number of complicated and curious 

 successions and relations, which we may hope to consider at a 

 future time, when the American facts relatiug to them have been 

 more fully elaborated. 



I have however digressed from my special subject, and in re^ 

 turning to it, and in closing this address, wo aid express my 

 thankfulness that here in America we hav3 a field for work on 

 BO broad a scale that there is little temptation to abandon the 

 ever fresh and exciting exploration of new regions and the discov- 

 ery of new facts, and the working out of hgitimate conclusions, 

 for that process of evolving worlds out oF our own conscious- 

 oess which seems to be the resource of those who have access 

 ■only to the often ransacked treasuries of nature in smaller aud 

 older countries. Placed on a continent waich in its geological 

 development is the grandest and noblest of all, and which maj 

 be made a type for all the rest, let us push forward the conquests 

 of legitimate science, and bear in mind that our present aim 

 should be above all things the diminutio i of that imperfection 

 of the geological record of which so much complaint is made. 



The Report of the Chairman of Council was read by Mr. G* 

 X. Marler, as follows : 



REPORT OF THE CHAIRMAN OF COUNCIL. 



At the close of another Session, your Council beg to submit 

 Uhe following Report : — 



