208 

 had been found iQ the Wenlock shales during the excavation of tlie M.lvern 

 mlway tunnel. The first thing that strikes us in looking at these fossils is 

 the marveUoHS perfection of their preservation. Not only is the exterunl 

 crust of the skeleton preserved, but you see even the lateral and dorsal spines 

 the caudal appendages, and sculpture on the plates, whil.t the eyes with 

 their hundreds of compound facets, are all embalmed in the rock. We see 

 likewise, the young, middle age, and adult condition of many species well 

 represented before us. Let us not look at these specimens with a mere diletta,iH 

 eye, but rather let us scan them with the inquiring glance of the student of 

 nature. In the first place, in these Sphcerexochus, Deipkon, Staurocephalas, 

 and Cheirurus, you see the highly ornamented condition of the dermal skeleton ; 

 2nd, in the compound eyes, so wonderfully preserved in this glass case full of 

 gems, you have the proof that the atmosphere was as pervious to light, and 

 as finely adjusted to the mechanism of the eye of this ancient aquatic articulate 

 as is the air of the present time to the eyes of existing species ; 3rdly, the 

 changes of form whioh these creatures exhibited shows that, like our modern 

 Crustacea, they passed'through a metamorphosis, rolled themselves into balls 

 and exhibited aU the characters of the great class they represented in the 

 Silurian seas. This long-taUed Phacops, large Ogygia, gigantic Asaphm, smooth 

 Homalanotus, tuberculated Calymene, and inflated Ilkenus, prove that the 

 ancient genera in their variety and beauty could well vie with modern Ufe. And 

 in passing rapidly in view, these ancient organisms, if he might be permitted 

 .to suggest the thought which rose in his mind at this moment when contem- 

 plating this grand display of the denizens of the old Silurian beach, it was this, 

 that the Almighty Author of aU things had chiefly displayed to us in these 

 His works how unchangeable was His character, for in the detaUs of their 

 structure, the laws of their being, and other phenomena by which present 

 organisms of the animal creation were characterised, were found by us alike in 

 these oldest members of the earth's first denizens ; so that if it was true that 

 hundreds of thousands of ages had rolled away since these creatures Hved the 

 same laws that governed their being, regulated their life, and assigned then* 

 their place in creation were presiding over the countless beings of the present 

 fame ; and were it possible to realise, in a material form, the words of scripture 

 that the Author of our being was the same yesterday, to-day and for ever' 

 he would point to the Crinoids, the Star-fishes, and Trilobites of the SUurian 

 seas now before them, and say. There are the evidences which declare the 

 truth, and prove the reality of those all-comforting words. 



Dr. Wright's eloquent address was listened to with marked attention, and 

 received great applause from every one present. 



A march was now made by a portion of the party to the Priory Church 

 where the Rev. G. Munn, Rector of Maddresfield, was in attendance by request 

 to read a paper on the painted windows and architecture of the sacred edifice' 

 Some of the geologists were, however, so engrossed with Dr. Grindrod's 

 museum that they did not hear the marching order, or could not tear them- 

 selves away, and thus lost this part of the programme. 



