290 Proceedings of Metropolitan Societies. [ April, 
THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 
Srvcr the Anniversary of last year some very important and interesting 
papers have been contributed to the Proceedings of this Society, most 
of them suggesting new interpretations of known facts, but some also 
referring to phenomena hitherto unknown or, at any rate, never before 
explained. The field over which the researches embodied in these 
various memoirs extends is a wide one, including as it does the follow- 
ing subjects :—(1) Breaksin the Succession of the British Paleozoic 
Strata; (2) Fossil Estheriz ; (3) Relation of the Permian Fauna and 
Flora to those of the Carboniferous Period ; (4) Origin of the Parallel 
Roads of Glen Roy ; (5) River-action ; (6) Geology of the West Indian 
Islands ; (7) The Abbeville Jaw and the associated Flint Implements ; 
(8) Geology of the Eastern Archipelago, besides a number of other 
questions, of either more special or merely local interest. 
1. The subject of the Anniversary Address of the President of the 
Society, Professor Ramsay, reminds every geologist how imperfect is 
our knowledge of the rock-formations which constitute the crust of the 
earth, the theme being “Breaks in the Succession of the British 
Paleozoic Strata.’ It is, moreover, one upon which no author has 
before written systematically, although many have described particular 
breaks incidentally when treating of other subjects. 
“ Breaks in Succession” are defined by Professor Ramsay to be 
“those physical interruptions in stratification marked by the uncon- 
formity of an upper formation to one immediately underlying it, or, 
when such visible unconformity is wanting, by a sudden change in the 
fossils characteristic of the underlying and overlying formations ;” but 
he immediately afterwards introduces a necessary limitation, stating 
that he only applies his argument “to those cases in which the upper 
formation is next in time to that which underlies it, according to our 
present knowledge of the order of succession.” Now these breaks are 
as good evidences of the lapse of time as a series of strata would be. 
Before the publication of this address few geologists would have 
admitted the existence of as many as ten physical breaks, as above de- 
fined, in the primary rocks of Britain, yet Professor Ramsay, in a series 
of very lucid arguments, shows the existence of at least that number of 
gaps in our palozoic series, and also that they are accompanied (ex- 
cept in one case, where the rocks are almost barren) by “great and 
remarkable changes in the number and nature of the fossils.” He also 
discusses the questions arising out of a consideration of this coinci- 
dence, especially the old notion that entire faunas had been suddenly 
destroyed, and the theory of Professor E. Forbes (lately revived in 
another shape by Professor Huxley) respecting the contemporaneity of 
strata; together with Mr. Darwin’s hypothesis of the origin of species, 
of which he appears to be a warm advocate. 
The conclusion to which he arrives respecting the lapse of time 
represented by these breaks is rather startling ; and although no geolo- 
gist is better qualified than Professor Ramsay to judge of the value 
of such gaps, yet one cannot help thinking that he has somewhat 
