February 8, 1855. 

 The LORD WROTTESLEY, President, in the Chair. 



A paper was in part read, entitled " An Account of some recent 

 Researches near Cairo, undertaken with the view of throw- 

 ing light upon the Geological History of the Alluvial Land 

 of Egypt." Part First. By LEONARD HORNER, Esq., 

 F.R.SS. L. & E., F.G.S. 



February 15, 1855. 



THOMAS BELL, Esq., V.P., in the Chair. 



Edward John Littleton, Baron Hatherton, was balloted for and 

 duly elected a Fellow of the Society. 



The following communications were read : 



I. The reading of Mr. HORNER'S paper was resumed and con- 

 cluded. 



The author commences by observing, that although it be highly 

 improbable that we can ever form an appropriate estimate in years 

 of the age even of the most modern strata, we are not cut off 

 from all hope of being able to assign an amount in years to the 

 duration of some of the great geological changes which, in past 

 ages, the present surface of the earth has undergone, by causes 

 that are still in operation; especially by a careful study of the 

 formation of the deltas of great rivers, and of the action of the 

 latter on the rocks and soils they traverse in their course. If in 

 a country in which a certain alteration in the land has occurred, we 

 know that such alteration has taken place in part within historical 

 time, and if the entire change under consideration presents through- 



