44 report — 1865. 



Among those visitors from abroad, I must first allude to my eminent friend, M. 

 Henri von Dechen, the Nestor of living geologists in Prussia. In speaking of him, 

 I turn back to the year 1827 (four years before the foundation of the British Asso- 

 ciation), -when he and his associate Oeynhausen explored our islands, and when it 

 was the good fortome of Professor Sedgwick and myself to examine parts of the 

 Highlands of Scotland in company with those able young German geologists, who 

 have since risen to such high distinction. Of him who is now present I will only 

 say that the great geological map of the Rhine Provinces, of which he has been the 

 director, is a work of special value to English geologists. In this map are delineated 

 with precision the whole series of the stratified rocks on both banks of the Rhine, 

 from those Devonian limestones of the Eifel which were correlated with our own by 

 Sedgwick and myself, to the Coal-measures and the several Tertiary and superficial 

 deposits, as well as all the rocks of igneous origin ; in it are also elaborated in the 

 most skilful manner all the numerous intermediate strata, of Devonian and Moun- 

 tain-limestone age, which are wanting in the immediate vicinity of Birmingham, 

 but which have to a great extent their equivalent representatives in other parts of 

 our islands. Whilst for the subordinate strata thus delineated M. von Dechen 

 and all Prussian geologists naturally employ local names, I am glad to find that 

 the general groups of Silurian, Devonian, and Carboniferous are thoroughly re- 

 cognized by him and his associates according to the divisions established in Bri- 

 tain, and of which our father William Smith set the first example, by his admirable 

 identification of the strata of the Secondary rocks by their fossils and order of super- 

 position. 



My veteran German friend is accompanied by another of his countrymen, Professor 

 Ferdinand Roemer, of Breslau, whose works have justly earned for him a very high 

 position, particularly in palreontology ; and whilst one of these is upon Texas, in the 

 United States of America, let me say how fortunate we are in having among us Prin- 

 cipal Dawson, of Montreal, in Canada, whose high merits are so well known to every 

 reader of the volumes of Lyell and the Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of 

 London. There may indeed be present several distinguished visitors from distant 

 countries, with whose arrival or intention of coming hither I am unacquainted 

 whilst I write ; but in relation to our nearest neighbours, the French, it gave me 

 great pleasure when I learned that our younger Foreign Associates were to be led 

 by M. A. Gaudry, once President of the Geological Society of France. Now, all 

 these visitors will, I doubt not, rejoice in having the opportunity of studying the 

 varied relations of the sedimentary and eruptive rocks in the vicinity of this flourish- 

 ing hive of human industry. These and other foreign visitors, as well as our as- 

 sociates from different parts of the United Kingdom, will necessarily take a deep 

 interest in comparing the varied rocks and their fossils which are grouped around 

 our place of meeting, with the sedimentary and eruptive rocks of their own several 

 districts. 



Among the recent important additions to our knowledge of the geographical 

 distribution and characters of the Silurian rocks, I cannot but advert to the suc- 

 cessful labours of Professor Darkness. He had already shown in the clearest 

 manner, by the evidence of fossils and order of succession, that the lowest of the 

 strata in the Cumbrian district of the Lakes, the slates of Skiddaw, are truly of 

 Lower Silurian age, and not older than the Llandeilo group. Recently, in pursuing 

 his labours, he has detected fossils in the " green slates " or volcanic ashes and 

 porphyries which lie intermediate between the Skiddaw strata and the higher 

 Silurian; and he has further found others in the Coniston Flags, which he views 

 as equivalents of the upper part of the Caradoc formation. Further, Professor 

 Harkness has shown, for the first time, that the slaty rocks of Westmoreland, 

 which separate the Carboniferous limestone from the Permian of the Vale of the 

 Eden, contain Lower Silurian fossils similar to those of Cumberland. I hope also 

 to learn from him at this meeting what has been the effect of certain great faults 

 ranging from north to south, which have impressed a grand and picturesque 

 outline on that region, and upon the lines of which are situated the most striking of 

 the lakes of the north-west of England. 



Although no Lower Silurian rocks, properly so called, occur near Birminghntn, 

 one adjacent tract, the Lickey, offers a characteristic example of the lowest of the 



