140 PAPERS, ETC. 
the origin of these lofty hills, the revelations of geological 
science refer us to the time when the now upheaved heights 
of Dunkery, and Brendon, and Quantock, formed the sea- 
beds, over which rolled the waves and billows of a boister- 
ous ocean, and into and upon which were precipitated from 
the vast laboratory which Almighty power alone could form, 
and Infinite Wisdom alone direct, the metals and minerals 
which are dispersed among them. The various beds of 
rock included in this series present varying features, ac- 
cording to the varying circumstances in which the deposits 
oceurred. The direetion and force of different currents,_ 
together with the varying character of the rocks the de- 
trital matter of which they held in suspension, would neces- 
sarily affeet the character of the deposit in different 
localities. Hence we find the rocks of this series more or 
less calcareous, more or less sandy ; in some places alto- 
gether devoid of any traces of organie remains, in others 
crowded with fragments of corals and of encrinites.. The 
Museum of the Society contains a variety of organic re- 
mains found in strata belonging to this series on the 
Quantock Hills. The honour and merit of the discovery 
(which is comparatively recent) belong to Mr. Pring, of 
Taunton, to whom the Society is indebted for many beau- 
tiful speeimens, and valuable services in the geologieal 
department. But while a few beds abound with remains 
of encrinites and corals, the great mass would seem to be 
devoid of them. From this we are led to infer that forms 
of organic life did not abound in the seas of that period ; 
or if they did, that they were for the most part exposed 
to such destroying agencies as to prevent their being pre- 
served in the deposits then formed. 
It is interesting, however, to observe traces of the 
analogies which prevail between the seas of that remote 
