540 Geological Society: Anniversary Address, 1843. 
appositely used in reference to the deposit throughout central and 
eastern Europe, where its lithological characters are so different 
from what is I presume the English type; and where they have 
been so well described by Swiss and French observers. I seek 
merely for the establishment of the truth; and I again ask if the 
Neocomian of Neufchatel and the Crimea be not the equivalent of 
the lowest Greensand of England, and of the hils-thon of Romer in 
Hanover? On revisiting the Isle of Wight last spring, in company 
with my friend Count Keyserling, and on finding in these beds many 
true Neocomian species, I adhered to my old opinion* ; and I now 
put this question in the hope that it will be completely answered 
through the labours of English geologists, and particularly of Mr. 
Austen, who has, I know, commenced an inquiry into this subject, 
and whose acquaintance with fossil shells and habits of field-research 
well qualify him for such a task. 
There is yet one point connected with the researches of M. Du- 
bois on which I beg to touch, from the admiration I entertain for 
any one, who pursues science for its own sake, and achieves durable 
results by his own unassisted endeavours. Occupied during ten 
years of his life as an instructor of youth, M. Dubois had no sooner 
realized a small independence than he resolved to enter upon this 
arduous undertaking. Repelled, in the first instance, by the war 
with Turkey and by the plague, he fortunately retired upon Berlin, 
where, passing two years in the admirable school of geologists of 
which that capital boasts, he once more set forth on his grand en- 
terprize, with no other recommendation than that which his good 
name, and a short memoir on Volhynia and Podolia, had acquired 
for him, and no other means than his own very moderate private 
fortune. Disposed, as it has always shown itself to encourage science, 
the Russian government was no sooner acquainted with his designs, 
than it offered him conveyances in their ships of war, and subsequently 
gave other encouragement. Hence M. Dubois was enabled to reach 
parts of Circassia which would otherwise have been inaccessible ; and 
thus he entered upon his remarkable journey. Revisiting the Crimea 
and parts of the south and north of Russia, he returned to Berlin, after 
an absence of four years, laden with much precious knowledge. But 
how was he to put this before the world? Not alarmed at the prospect 
of publications, from their descriptive nature necessarily very expen- 
sive, M. Dubois, encouraged by M. de Buch and M. E. de Beaumont, 
commenced the preparation of his works, of which five volumes and 
a splendid atlas have already been issued ; and as these are to be fol- 
lowed by other works, it is to be hoped that all the productions of 
this spirited author will be adequately and liberally purchased by 
the discerning portion of the public. I have the less hesitation in 
* Since this Address was read I have received a letter from Count Key- 
serling, dated Petersburgh, March 7, in which he acquaints me, that in a mass 
of shelly rock from Kyslavodsk in the Caucasus, which has been considered 
Neocomian, he has detected the same species of Thetis, Zrigonia, and 
other fossils as those which we collected together in the Lower Greensand 
of the Isle of Wight.—March 31st. 
