302 Geological Societj/. 



only state, that beds of shells are found on the mountauis of Sicily 

 three thousand feet above the level of the Mediterranean, and of 

 the same species with those now living in its waters *. 



Such are the steps by which we ascend through the divisions of 

 the tertiary period. I need not, however, inform you that we can 

 seldom determine their relations b}' the mere evidence of super- 

 position. Most frequently they appear in detached masses, the age 

 of wiiich can only be known by their fossils. This kind of evidence 

 is, however, sometimes brought before us in a manner at once the 

 most complicated and the most conclusive. It is to the labours 

 of MM. Deshayes, Basterot, and other expert naturalists, who are 

 devoting their talents and time to the completion of great works on 

 the oiganic forms of the several tertiary groups, that we must 

 look for information, which in the end may give us the means of u 

 safer and wider induction. 



With the exception of an interesting notice by Dr. Buckland of 

 the occurrence of agates in the dolomitic strata of the Mendip 

 Hills, not a single memoir has been read before us during last year, 

 on the mineralogical structure of any part of the British Isles. I do 

 not mention this without regret ; for while any part of the struc- 

 ture of this country is unexplored, we have leit unfinished that 

 task, to perform which was the first great object of our association. 

 The work of Mr. Phillips on the strata and organic remains of the 

 Yorkshire coast offers, however, a splendid contrast to this portion 

 of our year's productions. The clearness of the descriptions, the 

 accuracy of the sections, the figures of more than 400 fossils faith- 

 fully arranged according to their grouping in the formations be- 

 tween the new red sandstone and the chalk, combine to make it 

 one of the most valuable and instructive Essays in our language. 



Much, Gentlemen, remains to be done, before the structure of the 

 various formations of the British Isles can safely be appealed to 

 as one of those complete middle terms of comparison, by help of 

 which the disjointed fragments of a former world may in imagina- 

 tion be reunited. Respecting the perplexing phatnomena of the Crag 

 beds on the coast of Suffolk, we are greatly deficient in information. 

 Tlie accounts of all our tertiary strata, however excellent at the 

 time they were written, must be entirely remodelled. Even the his- 

 tory of the oolitic series (the boast of English geology, and the 

 type to which foreign naturalists are attempting to conform some 

 of their own secondary rocks) is defective. We know, in admirable 

 detail, the formations near Bath. On the coast of Yorkshire Mr. 

 Phillips has left us nothing to desire. But a promised Memoir on 

 the beautiful phaenomena near Weymouth, after many years of ex- 

 pectation, is still unwritten : and a detailed transverse section through 

 the wide oolitic beds of Northamptonshire is among our most im- 

 portant desiderata. 



* This important fact was communicated by Mr. Lyell ; and is described 

 by l)im in a work now in the press. 



Somcthins; 



