6-i4 REPOBT— 1888. 



Section C— GEOLOGY. 



President oe the Section — Professor W. Botd Dawkins, M.A., F.R.S., 



F.Q.S., F.S.A. 



THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 6. 

 The Peesident delivered the following Address : — 



In taking the chair occupied twenty-four years ago in this place hy my honoured 

 master, Professor Phillips, I have Ijeen much perplexed as to the most titting lines 

 on which to mould my Address. It was open to me to deal with the contribution* 

 to our knowledge since our last meeting in Manchester in such a manner as to place 

 before j'ou an outline of our progress during the last twelve months. But this task,, 

 difficult in itself, is rendered still more so by the special circumstances of this meet- 

 ing, attended, as it is, by so large a number of distinguished geologists, assembled from 

 nearly every part of the world for the purposes of the Geological Congress. It would be 

 presumptuous of me, in the presence of so many specialists, to attempt to summarise- 

 and co-ordinate their work. Indeed, we stand too near to it to be able to see tlie 

 true proportions of the various parts. I will merely take this opportunity of offer- 

 ing to our vi.sitors, in the name of this section and of English geologists in general, 

 a hearty welcome to our shores, feeling that not only will our science be benefited 

 enormously by the simplification of geological nomenclature, but that we our- 

 selves shall derive great advantage by a closer personal contact than we have enjoyed 

 hitherto. 



Our science has made great strides during the last twenty-four years, and she 

 has profited much from the great development of her sisters. The microscopic 

 analysis of the rocks has opened out a new field of research, in which physics and 

 chemistry are in friendly rivalry, and in which fascinating discoveries are being 

 made almost day by day as to metamorphism, and the crushing and shearing forces- 

 brought to bear upon the cooling and contracting crust wliile the earth was young. 

 The deep-sea explorations have revealed the structure and the deposits of the ocean 

 abysses, and the depths supposed to be without life, like the fabled deserts in the 

 interior of Africa, are now known to teem with varied forms glowing with the 

 richest colours. From a comparison of these deposits with the stratified rocks we 

 may conclude that the latter are marginal, and deposited in depths not greater than 

 1,000 fathoms, or the shore end of the Globigerina ooze, and most of them at a 

 very much less depth, and that consequently there is no proof in the geological 

 record of the ocean depths having ever been in any other than their present 

 places. 



In North America the geological survey of the Western States has brought to- 

 light an almost unbroken series of animal remains, ranging from the Eocene down 

 to the Pleistocene Age. In these we find the missing links in the pedigree of the 

 Horse, and sufficient evidence of transitional forms to cause Professor Flower to 

 restore to its place in classification the order Ungulata of Cuvier. These maj' be 

 expected to occupy the energies of our kinsmen on the other side of the Atlantic 

 for many years, and to yield further proof of the truth of the doctrine of evolution. 

 The use of this word reminds me how much we have grown since 18G4, wher 

 evolution was under discussion, and when biological, physical, and geological 



