Geological Society. 463 



modern publications of Germany : and of those of Italy, which in- 

 clude a great number of tracts on topography and physical geogra- 

 phy, full of ingenious speculation and valuable detail, there are but 

 few indeed with which we are acquainted. The description of our 

 own country is but a step to what Geology is yet to become ; and 

 for the generalization which is wanting to render it worthy of alliance 

 with the higher departments of science, the study of foreign pro- 

 ductions is not only expedient as an economy of labour and time, 

 but is demanded by justice and truth. 



Messrs. Lyell and Murchison concur with De Montlosier and 

 Scrope, in testifying that the valleys in Auvergne and the Vivarrais 

 have been produced by the streams, in opposition to any more 

 general or violent agency. They regard some of the deposits of 

 transported materials in that country, which contain organic re- 

 mains, and are more recent than the tertiary formations, as having 

 been accumulated in small lakes, caused by the temporarjr obstruc- 

 tion of rivers, — either by lavas, or by land-falls after earthquakes : — 

 and they did not find upon the surface, even of the most ancient 

 lava-currents, any trace of that more extensive diluvial action, nor 

 any remnant of those masses of rock transported from great dis- 

 tances, which have been supposed to be of universal occurrence 

 over the entire surface of the globe. 



It is not here my province to enter into the discussion of these 

 interesting questions, nor to pronounce an opinion upon them. 

 It will be sufficient to have intiniated, that much still remains to be 

 done, even in this department of inquiry, the progress of which has 

 been of late so very remarkable : and that as the doctrine of Werner, 

 which ascribed to volcanic power an almost accidental origin, and 

 an unimportant office, has long since expired ; so the more recent 

 views, which regard a certain class of causes as having ceased from 

 acting, will probably give place to an opinion, that the forces from 

 whence the present appearances have resulted, are in Geology, as 

 in Astronomy and general Physics, permanently connected with 

 the constitution, and structure of the Globe. 



Such, Gentlemen, is a brief statement of the product of our 

 labours during the past year, and of some of the objects which 

 you may perhaps regard as still deserving your attention. If, on 

 comparing our subject with some other departments of physical 

 research, we lament that we cannot avail ourselves of such aid as 

 mathematical science furnishes to the astronomer; if the phasnomena 

 we are occupied in observing be inferior in sublimity to those pre- 

 sented by the heavenly bodies, and the laws we investigate less 

 strict than those which govern their motions, — still do our inquiries 

 claim a very high place as an exercise of intellectual power. The 

 geologist, like the astronomer, is called upon to trace the operation 

 of forces, not only vast beyond conception in themselves, but ac- 

 quiring almost infinite augmentation of effect, from the number- 

 less ages during which they have been unremittingly exerted: and 

 the problem, to explain the condition of the cartli's surface at 

 any moment of this career, is complicated as much perhaps as 



any 



