Geological Society. 303 



Something is left to be done in illustrating the upper part of the 

 new red sandstone. It is here that the povei-ty of our secondary 

 rocks offers a striking contrast to the riches of the coeval rocks 

 on the flanks of the Vosges and on the banks of the Neckar. And 

 this very poverty makes every scrap of information, whether derived 

 from mineralogical or organic characters, of importance in assisting 

 us to complete this broken part of our secondary series. 



Even the history of our coal formations is not yet perfect. The 

 association of the coal and mountain limestone of Northumberland 

 has not been well explained. The great corresponding deposits 

 of Cumberland are undescribed : nor does it appear in our pub- 

 lished works, that coal is found alternating in the North of England 

 with all parts of the mountain limestone group ; and that beds of 

 coal are worked in several places, resting upon transition slate, and 

 surmounted by the whole limestone series. More than half of Ire- 

 land is a blank on our geological maps : and on many of the tran- 

 sition districts of England our information is lamentably defective. 



The study of our older deposits is indeed difficult and toilsome, 

 and unenlivened with the frequent occurrence of organic bodies. 

 But no country, hitherto described, shows a more splendid series of 

 ph.'Benomena, to illustrate the intrusive agency of crystalline rocks; 

 and to exhibit the great successive internal movements, by which 

 our continents have been elevated, and brought under those laws 

 of degradation which have fashioned them into their present forms. 

 In these investigations there is still a rich spoil ready for anj' one 

 who will have the courage to stretch out his hands to grasp it. A 

 part of it I have myself gathered among the mountains of Cumber- 

 land, with no small labour; which I shall count for gain, if I may 

 be permitted, hereafter, to lay it up in the storehouse of this Society. 



Leaving, however, the subject of British geology, 1 must call 

 your attention to those Papers which, during our sessions of the 

 past year, have described the general phaenomena of secondary 

 rocks. — On the secondary formations of the Netherlands we have 

 heard some interesting remarks in a recent Paper by Dr. Fitton, 

 above quoted ; in which he describes the structure and distribution 

 of the chalk, the firestone, and the green and ferruginous sands; 

 shows their discordant position over the coal-measures ; and indi- 

 cates the characters, both in which they differ and agree with the 

 corresponding members of the English series. 



In a Paper on the geology of the shores of the Gulf of Spezia, 

 beautifully illustrated by sections and drawings, Mr. De la Beche 

 describes a long series of stratified and unstratified rocks. Among 

 the former may be enumerated, beds of clay sandstone and con- 

 glomerate, supposed to be tertiary; beds of mncigno ; the marble 

 of Porto Venere ; the crystalline limestone of Capo Corvo, <S:c. 

 among tiie latter, dialiage rock, serpentine, mica schist, &c. He 

 endeavours to show, from the structure of the district, and the fos- 

 sils of the neighbouring rocks, that the marble of Porto Veneie may 

 belong to the age of the oolitic scries ; and that the dialiage rocks 



and 



