Geological Society. 433 



nojtiy, and what Ivory, and Lubbock, and Poisson, &c., are still con- 

 tributing fresh truths to. They aim at nothing more ; but they aim at 

 nothing less. 



The natural distribution of the Animal Kingdom then, as given in 

 Mr. Macleay's Horce Entomologies, may be compared, in a general 

 manner, with the natural system of the Planets, as discovered, equally 

 by the method of induction, by Copernicus ; and the additions to and 

 extensions of that distribution, which Mr. Vigors has produced with 

 respect to Birds, Dr. Horsfield with respect to Lepidopterous Insects, 

 &c., may be compared with the further unfolding of tlie planetary sy- 

 stem by the labours of the successors of Copernicus. We do not pre- 

 sume to assert that the labours of these latter naturalists are of equal 

 degree or rank, as contributions to Natural History, with the discoveries 

 of Kepler and Galileo, as contributions to Astronomy ; — we give no 

 opinion on this point — but we affirm that they have extended the 

 knowledge of the natural system of animated nature, communicated 

 by Mr. Macleay, in like manner as Kepler and Galileo extended that 

 communicated by Copernicus of the natural system of the planets. We 

 certainly are of opinion, however, that Mr. Macleay's discoveiy of the 

 natural system in Zoology is of similar importance as a contribution 

 to that science, to what the discovery by Copernicus of the natural 

 system of the planets was as a contribution to Astronomy ; and that 

 it will lead to results, in the researches of the naturalists of future 

 ages, as important as those which Kepler, Galileo, Newton, and their 

 successors have effected in the development of the particular "natu- 

 ral system" which formed their object of pursuit. 

 Sept. 2.9, 1831. [To be continued.] 



LVII. Proceedings of hearned Societies. 



GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



Nov. 2. — ''I "'HE Society assembled this evening for the Ses- 

 -■- sion. 



A ])aper was read, " On certain younger deposits in Sicily, and on 

 the phsenomena accompanying their elevation." By Dr. TurnbuU 

 Christie, F.G.S., and communicated by the President. 



The observations contained in this essay were made partly during 

 a short visit to Palermo, and partly on an excursion in which the 

 author travelled from Palermo along the northern coast as far as the 

 Castello di Tusa, crossed the central chain of mountains by way of 

 Mistretta and the Monte di CastcUito Nicosia, Leonforte, and Castro- 

 Giovanni, turned eastward by way of San Filippo d'Argire to Ca- 

 tania, and then proceeded along the east coast by Lentini, Syracuse, 

 and Nofo to Cape Pa.ssero, where he embarked for Malta. In this 

 route he had an opportunity of examining most of the principal stra- 

 tified formations in Sicily, and hopes to have clearly determined the 

 exact place in the geological series to which many of them must be 

 referred. 



The formations described by the author are arranged under the 

 eight following divisions : — 



N. S. Vol. 10. No. 60. Dec. 1831. 3 K 1. The 



