Geological Society of London. : 79 
ganization and direction of this scheme, the Editor was indefatigable, 
and he succeeded in obtaining the co-operation of a great number of 
the most able and eminent writers. In announcing the original aim 
and scope of the undertaking, he laid stress on the difficulties under ; 
which men of science labor in procuring intelligence of new works, 
written in a great variety of languages in different parts of the world, 
and frequently buried in the voluminous and costly transactions of 
learned societies. He therefore expressed a hope that his Bulletin 
would serve as ‘“‘a kind of telegraph” for the rapid conveyance of 
the earliest intelligence of inventions and discoveries, so as to pre- 
vent philosophers from wasting their time and money in slowly feel- 
ing their way to results already found out by others, and attaining 
with great labor the very points from which they might have started. 
The Geological section of the Bulletin was ably supported by MM. 
Boué, Brongniart, and other writers, and survived the other sections 
for some time, maintaining itself for seven years, till at length it was 
given up in 1831 for want of sufficient encouragement. 
The works of Baron Férussac on Natural History, and especially 
Conchology, would deserve from me a fuller notice, if they were not 
irrelevant to the subject of this address. 
HOME GEOLOGY. 
I shall now commence my retrospect of the proceedings of the 
Society, during the last year, by considering those papers which have 
been devoted to the Geology of the British Isles. There is proba- 
bly no space on the globe, of equal area, which has been so accu- 
rately surveyed as this kingdom; yet the most experienced geolo- 
gists are now exploring several parts of it with the feeling that they 
are entering upon terra incognita. Not only do they find it neces- 
sary to trace out more correctly the limits of formations previously 
known, but also to introduce new groups of fossiliferous strata and 
new divisions, in districts before supposed to have been well inves- 
tigated. 
The carboniferous deposits which are alike interesting, in a sci- 
entific and economical view, have deservedly occupied of late the 
particular attention of many able geologists, and we have received 
communications on the subject from Mr. Murchison, Mr. Prestwich, 
Professor Sedgwick, and Mr. Peile. The observations of Mr. Prest- 
wich relate to the coal-measures of Coalbrook Dale, and the forma- 
tions immediately above and below them, together with the accom- 
panying trap-rocks. 
