tht 



(READ BEFORE THE MEMBERS OP THE FIELD CLUB 

 JUNE 5ra, 1891.) 



SHALL not confine myself this morning to local 

 subjects which come especially within the province 

 of our Club, but shall include others of a general 

 character and which are beyond the limits of 

 the county. Through the perseverance of man 

 Nature is yielding up much of her hidden 

 treasures ; energy, or its equivalent force heat, electricity, and 

 other primary elements which possess no material constituents 

 and are among the most powerful agents in Nature, have not 

 escaped the grasp of man. Phonography, perhaps, is making the 

 most startling progress, and, under the genius of Edison, is in a fair 

 way towards perfection. Geology, which 50 years ago had no 

 standpoint in the Areopagus of science, now stands on one of its 

 highest platforms through the genius of Lyell, Sedgwick, 

 Murchison, Prestvvich, and those who have followed the lines laid 

 down by these pioneers, all of whom have contributed towards the 

 knowledge of the physical and biological history of our earth 

 from the earliest periods. We now know the characteristic features 

 and constitution of the rocks which are classified according to their 



