218 Geological Society : — Afiniversary of 1839. 



Art. III. — Extracts from the Annivei^sary Address of the Rev. 

 Wm, WhewelLj before the Geological Society of London. 

 Continued from p. 129 of this volume. 



In attempting a sketch of the subjects which have occupied the 

 attention of the Society during the year^ I should wish to retain 

 that distribution of the science of geology according to which I 

 arranged my remarks in the Address which I had last year the 

 honor of reading to the Society ; I mean the primary division into 

 Descriptive Geology and Geological Dynamics ; the former imply- 

 ing a description of the rocks of tlie earth's surface according to an 

 established classification of strata and formations; and the latter 

 dealing with the study of those general laws and causes of change 

 by which we hope to understand and account for the facts which 

 Descriptive Geology brings before us j in short, the present con- 

 dition and the past history of the earth's crnst. But as the laws of 

 permanence and changCj with regard to organized beings, differ 

 very widely from the dynamics of brute matter, we may conven- 

 iently make a separate study of the relations of organic life to 

 which geology conducts us, and may mark it by the name Pal- 

 ceontology^ by which it is commonly known. I will add, that it 

 still appears to me convenient, for the present, to divide Descrip- 

 tive Geology into two portions, — the Home circuit, in which the 

 order of superposition has already been established with great 

 continuity and detail • and the Foreign region, in which we are 

 only just beginning to trace such an order. I shall also, as before, 

 take the ascending order of strata. According to this arrange- 

 ment of the science, I shall venture to bring to your recollection 

 a few of the points to which our attention has mainly been called 

 during the past year. 



DESCRIPTIVE GEOLOGY- 



1. Home {North European) Geology. — When I stated that 

 Descriptive Geology has for its task the reference of the rocks of 

 some portions of the earth's surface to an established classification 

 into strata and formations, it was implied that the more common 

 employment of the descriptiv^e geologist must be to refer the rocks 

 which he examines to some classes already fixed and recognized ; 



but it could hardly fail to occur to yoU; that from time to time the 



