167 



beKeved a geologist would say there was hardly any strata which 

 was better worked for fossils of one sort or another than chalk. 



The Chairman thought Mr. Farr would remember that the 

 ■objects discovered in the chalk were marine. 



Mr. Goss s<aid it was quite exceptional to find insect remains 

 in mai'ine formations at all. They might be Idown into the sea, 

 or by a strong river washed out in currents into tlie sea, but as a 

 rule they did not expect to find them in marine deposits. One of 

 the most important things which they drew from the study of 

 insect remains \vas what the chmate of a former period was, and 

 they might arrive at some knowledge on the subject by consider 

 ing the proportion existing between the carnivorous beetles and 

 the vegetable beetles, because it was well known at the present 

 day there was a certain ratio existing Ijetween those two groujjs, 

 which varied according as they come nearer to the equator or 

 departed further from it. The nearer they came to the equator 

 the'vegetable beetle got much commounr, and the carnivorous 

 much more rare. A great advantage was deri-^ed from the study 

 of fossil insects, and that Avas they could arrive at some idea as to 

 the climate in former times — the climate of Eui'ope, for instance, 

 in the Miocene period was undoubtedly tropical — and thus they 

 could do something towards increasing the knowledge of the 

 past. 



j\lr. Penley said the lecturer had not made any mention of 

 the coal formation. 



Mr. Goss replied that it was because his paper dealt with 

 tlie tertiary and secondary jieriods only. That subject would be 

 for a third paper. 



The meeting then terminated. 



