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The latter read the financial statement, which showed that 

 a large amount of arrears had been collected, and that the 

 funds of the Club were in a thoroughly satisfactory state. The 

 President then read his Annual Address, giving a summary of 

 the work done, and the papers read at the different Meetings 

 of the Club, during the foregoing season. 



After dinner, Mr. Etheridge, T.R.S., read a papei-, illustrated 

 by splendid sections, on the "Cambrian Beds of St. David's, 

 Pembrokeshire. " Mr. Etheridge first gave the history of the , 

 Cambrian question as originally proposed by Sedgwick many 

 years since, in contradistinction from the view held on the same 

 subject by Sir Roderick Murchison. He then described the 

 features of St. David's promontory, the section in the Harleck and 

 Longmynd rocks at the base, and the succeeding " Menoevian " 

 and "Tremadoc" beds, on either side of the N.W. axis. The 

 sections at St. David's were compared with the Longmynd and 

 Malvern areas, and correlated with the more distant localities 

 where possible. The "fauna" of the several series in the Camb- 

 rian and Lower Silurian rocks were noticed, and their relation 

 through the ascending groups of beds were minutely detailed. 

 Mr. Etheridge noticed the labours of Mr. Hicks and Mr. 

 Salter over the same area. He then made reference to the 

 Laurentian Cambrian and Lower Silurian rocks of the N.W. of 

 Scotland, and endeavoured to shew by correlation their distri- 

 bution southwards. The Lower Silurian rocks of St. David's, 

 viz. : the " Arenigs " and the " Llandilo " beds, were then briefly 

 described as tending to complete the geology of the St. David's 

 promontory. 



The reading of this paper, of which the foregoing resume gives 

 but a meagre outline, left many points standing out in prominent 

 relief ; of these none left a deeper impression than the fact most 

 forcibly revealed by the study of these remarkable sections, — 

 that types of life appear to have come suddenly into existence ; 

 not, as was at one time conceived, in a rudimentary condition, 

 but, as it were, to have sprung into perfection at a bound. Thus, 

 beginning with the basement rocks of St. David's, which appear 

 to exhibit but doubtful traces of life, the observer finds himself 

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