650 EEPORT — 1888. 



The question of tbe antiquity of ^lan is inseparabl}' connected with the further 

 question : ' Is it possible to measure the lapse of geological time in years ? ' 

 Various attempts have been made, and all, as it seems to me, have ended in "failure. 

 Till we know the rate of causation in the past, and imtil we can be sure that it 

 has been invariable and uninterrupted, I cannot see anything but failure in the 

 future. Neither the rate of the erosion of the land by sub-aerial agencies, nor its 

 destruction by oceanic currents, nor the rate of the deposit of stalagmite or of the 

 movement of the glaciers, have as yet given us anything at all approaching a 

 satisfactory date. We only have a sequence of events recorded in the rocks, 

 with intervals the length of which we cannot measure. "We do not know the 

 exact duration of any one geological event. Till we know both, it is surely impossible 

 to fix a date, in terms of years, either for the first appearance of I\Ian or for any 

 event outside the written record. We may draw cheques upon ' the bank of force' 

 as well as ' on the bank of time.' 



Two of my predecessors in this chair, Dr. Woodward and Professor Judd, have 

 dealt with the position of our science in relation to Biology and Mineralogy. 

 Professor Phillips in 1864 pointed out that the later ages in Geology and the 

 earlier ages of mankind were fairly united together in one large field of inquiry. 

 In these remarks I have set myself the task of examining that side of our science 

 which looks towards History. My conception of the aim and results of •Geology 

 is, that it should present a universal history of the various phases through which 

 the earth and its inhabitants have passed in the various periods, until ultimately the 

 story of the earth, and how it came to be what it is, is merged in the story of Man 

 and his works in the written records. Whatever the future of Geology may be, it 

 certainly does not seem likely to suH'er in the struggle for existence in the scientific 

 renascence of the nineteenth century. 



The following Papers were read : — 

 1. Further Note on the Mid/or d Sands} By HORACE B. WoODWAED, F.G.S. 

 [Communicated by permission of the Director-General of the Geological Survey.] 



The term Midford Sands, introduced in 1871 by Professor Phillips, has been 

 accepted by many geologists because it avoided the confusion that had arisen from 

 the use by some authorities of the term Inferior Oolite Sands, and by others of 

 Upper Lias Sands. 



At Midford the upper portion of the Inferior Oolite (zone of Ammonites Par- 

 kinsoni) rests directly on the Sands, whereas in other parts of Somersetshire, in 

 Dorsetshire and Gloucestershire, the lower portion of the Inferior Oolite (com- 

 prising the zones oiA. Humphriedanus and A. MurchUmKe) is present above the 

 Sands. In the absence of palseontological evidence, it has been questioned whether 

 the Midford Sands are really equivalent to the Sands in other parts of the south- 

 west of England. Hence other local names, e.r/., the Yeovil and Bridport Sands, 

 and the Cotteswold Sands, have been introduced. 



Regarding the zoTae oi Aynmonites opalinus and the Gloucestershire Cephalo- 

 poda-bed as a portion of the Cotteswold Sands, there is no doubt about their 

 correlation with the Sands of Bridport and Yeovil. Two species of Ammonites 

 {A. sfriatulus and A. aalensis) have been obtained by the Rev. H. H. Winwood 

 from the Midford Sands. The latter of these species was recorded by myself, on 

 the authority of Mr. Etheridge, in 1876, but its occurrence has been overlooked. 

 More recently I have seen in the William-Smith Collection in the British Museum 

 an Ammonite from the Coal-canal at Midford ; and thi.s has been identified by 

 Mr. Etheridge and Mr. R. B. Newton as very near to, if not identical with, 

 A. Levesquei, a species recorded bj' Dr. Lycett from the Gloucestershire Ceplialopoda- 

 bed. These species show that the Midford Sands belong to the same general 

 horizon as the Sands of Gloucestershire and Dorsetshire, so that there is no adequate 



' A previous Note on the Midford Sands was published in the Geol. Mag. 1872, 

 p. 513. 



