;5o 



NATURE 



{Aug. 26, 1875 



tained by the Government ; and in particular an observatory 

 should be founded specially devoted to astronomical physics." 



If the men of science of this country who procured the 

 appointment of this commission, and who subsequently gave 

 evidence before it, will no'v come forward to support its recom- 

 mendations, it can hardly be doubted that these will be speedily 

 carried into effect. 



lUit other things besides observitions are necessary, if we are 

 to pursue with advantage this great physical problem. 



One of these is the removal of the intolerable burden that ha? 

 hitherto been laid upon private meteorologists and magneticians. 

 Expected to furnish their tale of bricks, they have been left to 

 find their own straw. Nothincj more wretched can be imagined 

 than the position of an amateur — that is to say, a man who 

 purnies science for the love of it and is unconnected with any 

 rs'a^ lishmicnt — who has set himself to promote observational 

 inquiries, whether in meteorology or magnetism. 



He has first to obtam with great expenditure of time or 

 money, or both, copies of the individual observations taken at 

 some recognised institution. He has next to reduce these in the 

 way that fuits his inquiry ; an operation again consuming time 

 and demanding menns. Let us suppose all this to be successfully 

 accomplished, and a valuable result obtained. It is doubtless 

 embodied in the Transactions of some society, but it excites 

 little enthusiasm, for it consists of something which cannot be 

 repeated by every one for himself like a new and interesting 

 experiment. Yet the position of such men has recently been 

 improved. .Several observatories and other institutions now 

 publish their individual observations ; this is done by our 

 Tvleteorological Office, while Dr. Bergsma, Dr. Neumayer, and 

 Mr. Broun are recent examples of magneticians who have 

 adopted this plan. The publication of the work of the latter is 

 due to the enlightened patronage of the Rajah of Travancore, 

 who has thus placed himself in front of the princes of India and 

 given them an example which it is to be hoped they will follow. 

 But this is only one step in the right direction ; another must 

 consist in subsidis'ng private meteorologists and magneticians in 

 Older to enable them to obtain the aid of computers in reducing 

 the observations with which they have been furnished. The 

 man of science would thus be able to devote his knowledge, 

 derived from long study, to the methods by which results and 

 the laws regulating them are to be obtained ; he could be the 

 architect and builder of a scientific structure without being fprced 

 to waste his energies on the work of a hodman. 



Another hindrance consists in our deficient knowledge as to 

 what observations of value in magnetism and meteorology have 

 already been made. We ought to have an exhaustive catalogue 

 (.f all that Las been done in this respect in our globe, and of the 

 conditions under which the various observations will be acces- 

 bible to outside inquirers. A catalogue of this kind has bten 

 framed by a commiitee of this Association, but it is confined to 

 the djminijns of England, and requires to be supplemented by 

 a list of that which has been done abroad. 



A ihiid drawback is the insufficient nature of the present 

 facilities for the iaveUion and improvement of instruments, i.nd 

 lor their vtr.ficaaon. 



We have, no duubt, a:Jvanced greatly in the construction of 

 instruments, especially in those which are self-recording, The 

 names of Brooke, Robinson, Welsh, Osier, and Beckley will 

 occur to us all as improvers of our instruments of observatioiu 

 bir W. I'homson has likewise adapted his electrometer to the 

 wants of meteorology. Dr. Robcoe has given us a self-recording 

 aclinoniv-tcr, but a good instrument for observiu;j the sun's 

 heat is still a desideratum. It ought likewise to be borne in 

 mind that the standard mercurial thermomettr "is by no nieaa* 9. 

 perfect iubiruriient. 



In conclusion, it cannot be doubted that a great generalisalioa 

 is looming in the distance— a mii^hly law we cannot jet tc.l 

 what, that will reach us, we cannot yet say when. It will 

 involve facts hitherto inexplicable, facts that are scarcely received 

 as such because they appear opposed to our present knowledge 

 of their causes. It is not possible perhaps to hasten the arrival 

 of this generalisation beyond a certain point ; but we ought not 

 to forget that we can hasten it, and that it is our duty to do so. 

 It depends much on ourselves, our resolution, our earnestness ; 

 on the scientific policy we adopt, as well as on the power we 

 may have to devote ourselves to special investigations, whether 

 such an advent shall be realised in our day and generation, or 

 whether it shall be indefinitely postponed. It governments 

 would understand the ultimate material advantages of every step 



forward in .'•cicnce, however inapplicable each may appear for 

 the moment to the wants or pleasures of r rdinary life, they would 

 find reasons patent to the meanest capacities for bringing tie 

 weilth of min ', now lost on the drudgery of commnn !abour«, 

 to bear on the search for 'hose wondrous laws which govern 

 every movement not rnly of the mighty masses of our system, 

 but of evfry atom distributed throughout srgce. 



SECTION C. 



OrENixa Address of Dr.- Thomas Wright, F'.R.S.E., 



F.G.S., President. 



On the Geological and Fahmntological Character oj the Country 



around Briitol. 



In taking this Chair to-day, I desire first to express my deep 

 sense of gratitude to the Council of the British Association for 

 the honour conferred on me, and secondly, to say how much [ 

 feel the responsibility of the position in which I am placed when 

 I recollect the long list of distinguished savans who in former 

 years have presided over this Section. The fact that Buckland, 

 Conybeare, De la Beche, Forbes, Geikie, Hopkins, Jukes, 

 Lyell, Murchison, Phillips, Ramsay, and other men illustrious 

 in the annals of British Geology have filled this chair, may well 

 make me doubt how far my own feeble powers are equal to an 

 efficient discharge of its duties ; however, I shall bring a willing 

 mind and an honest determination to do my best on this 

 occasion. 



We have met again in one of the most interesting centres in 

 England to all students of practical geology ; for within a short 

 distance of this spot we can examine some of the most instructive 

 sections of PaLxozoic and Mesozoic rocks, and study a magni- 

 ficent collection of local fossils obtained from them. So I pur- 

 pose occupying the short space of time allowed for this intro- 

 ductory address in attempting to give you a general outline of 

 the geological character of the country around Bristol, with a 

 resume of some of its more remarkable Palseontological features, 

 by way of inducing you to visit and study the admirable collection 

 of local organic remains so well displayed in the Museum of the 

 Bristol Philosophical Institution. 



Geology is the history of the Earth ; for it attempts to con- 

 struct a table of phenomena, physical and chemical, organic and 

 inorganic, which have succeeded each other from the past to the 

 present, and on the terrestrial surface traces of its origin and 

 progress are preserved. 



That phase which we see to-day is only the most recent of its 

 eventful history, and although the last, is not the final one, as the 

 physical forces that are ever in action among its different parts 

 are slowly and steadily producing new combinations, which in 

 time will effect mutations in its structure, change its physiography, 

 and remodel the whole. 



There is probably no other place in England where, within so 

 limited an area, typical example's of so many different formations 

 occur as around this city ; for within a short distance by road or 

 rail we may investigate the Silurian, Devonian, Carboniferous, 

 Triassic, Liassic, Oolitic, and Cretaceous formations, all of which 

 will yield many interesting species for the cabinet of the paliEon- 

 tologist, and a valuable series of rocks and minerals for the 

 student of Physical Geology. 



These different formations in relation to the entire series of 

 stratified rocks will be better understood by a reference to tlie 

 Tabic on the following page, in which the periods, divisions, 

 formations, and typical localities are given. 



The localities in the Table may be grouped into six dis- 

 tricts : — 



1. Tortworth district. 4. Bristol district. 



2. Mendip Hills. 5. Dundry district. 



3. Radstock district. 6. Bridgewater district. 



I. Tortworth District. 

 Silurian. — Tortworth has long been classical ground to the 

 geologist, and was first brought into notice by Dr. Cooke, for- 

 merly (i 799-1835) rector of the parish. This gentleman made 

 an extensive collection of fossils from all the rocks in the district, 

 which after his death passed through my hands, and I can 

 therefore speak to the fact. A description of the Geology o( 

 Tortworth was made by Mr. Weaver,^ and by Buckland and 

 Conybeare.^ These memoirs were written at a time when the 



I Trans. Geol. Soc. vol. i. p. 317 (2nd series). 

 ' Ibid. p. sio. 



