President's Address. 3 



Palceontology, gentlemen, is a science whicli my friend and 

 colleague, Dr E. H. Traquair, F.E.S., so aptly described to 

 you two years since, as not at present occupying " a very 

 exalted position in tlie estimation of the general public."* 

 All the more reason, then, why we, who have made it, in its 

 various branches, the study of our lives, should endeavour to 

 disseminate that knowledge, and so elevate to the highest 

 possible estate one of the most fascinating studies comprised 

 within that very broad and comprehensive term, ''Natural 

 History." 



The oldest writer on Scotch Palaeontology, the Eev. David 

 Ure, tells us that, "Extraneous or adventitious fossils are 

 such as were originally organised bodies, "-|- whilst its most 

 distinguished student, Thomas Davidson, Esq., F.E.S., of 

 Davidson's Mains, and to whose WTitings frequent reference 

 wdll be made, reminds ns that " Scotland was long believed 

 to be poor in organic remains." J To the works of this 

 author, perhaps, as much as to any, we are indebted for the 

 disproval of this very erroneous belief. 



The subject of Fossil Conchology, of whatever area and 

 geological period, is one possessing great and absorbing 

 interest to the student of geological science. Of all life 

 groups used by the geologist to assist him in working out 

 the successive epochs of the earth's history, none, perhaps, 

 have played so important a part, or yielded so satisfactory 

 and valuable results, as the MoUusca. The remains of shells 

 have existed from time immemorial. Their advent took 

 place before the deposition of the earliest fossiliferous 

 deposits of which we have any definite record. A cor- 

 responding advance in complexity and beauty of form has 

 kept pace with successive geological periods. 



Shells are not only of invaluable use to the geologist as a 

 means, in conjunction with other divisions of the animal 

 kingdom, of indicating life groups in the world's history, but 

 they also afford a clue, within certain limits, to the climatical 

 and bathymetrical conditions under which the rocks contain- 



* Proc. Roy. Phys. Soc, Edinb., 1880, p. 140. 



t History of Paithergleu and E. Kilbride, 1793, p. 295. 



X Geologist, 1859, ii., p. 461. 



