TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION C. 675 



dependencies are not, and I think rightly, recognised as foreigners, that designation 

 being employed for those who are not in any sense subjects of the Queen. 



As a consequence, the geologists of our Colonies are not looked upon as elioiblc 

 for honorary connection with the Geological Society, and though in the distribution 

 of the medals and awards their work is no doubt noticed, yet that is now so im- 

 portant and extensive that it might be desirable to secure for it a more specific and 

 extensive recognition than has hitherto perhaps been possible. 



Might we not also through the home influence we could bring to bear by means 

 of this great Section of the British Association succeed in inducing our practical 

 colonial governments to see the enormous commercial as well as scientific oaiu that 

 must eventually accrue to themselves if they would, with wise liberality, continue 

 to completion their much-needed geological surveys, instead of (as has too often 

 happened) abandoning- the work before its end has been attained, or makino- its 

 maintenance from year to year contingent on the chance discovery of gold, or the 

 successful boring for coal or water — results not always to be attained within twelve 

 months by a geologist in a new country, however good he may be, unless he have 

 a fiiiry godmother or a divining-rod at his command ? 



If by means of our confederation such useful and helpful works can be inaugu- 

 rated, we shall have fulfilled an object well worthy the initiation of Sir William 

 Dawson, and of all those whose names may be connected with so laudable an 

 undertaking. 



Nor need such a development of the work of 'this Section interfere in any way 

 with the labours of the ' International Geological Congress,' which occupies a dis- 

 tinct field of its own ; for whatever we might accomplish in carrying out the sugges- 

 tions put forward by Sir William Dawson would really be in effect to second and 

 support — not to hinder — the work of that most useful body of geologists. 



Our next topic relates to Foreign Atiairs. 



The International Geological Oojigress, which met in Bologna in 1881, and in 

 Berlin in 1885, wUl hold its next meeting in Loudon in 1888. This year the Com- 

 mittee of the Congress on Geological Nomenclature will meet during the Associa- 

 tion week at Manchester. Professor Capellini, of Bologna, is the President of this 

 Committee, and Professor Dewalque, of Liege, is the Secretary. Its object is to 

 discuss various questions respecting the classification and nomenclature of Euro- 

 pean rocks, and to report thereon to the Congress in London. 



It is quite certain that a large number of Continental and American geologists 

 will be present in London next year, and it rests with English geologists to deter- 

 mine whether the meeting shall be as successful as those which have preceded it. 

 The Berlin Congress left the arrangement in the hands of a small committee of 

 English members (Messrs. Blanford, Geikie, Hughes, and Topley), and advantage 

 will probably be taken of the presence of so many geologists in Manchester to fur- 

 ther the organisation of the English meeting. 



The occasion of the Congress visiting London next year should also be a 

 sufficient reason to enlist new members here, and it is to be hoped that a very 

 cordial reception will be accorded to all those who come from abroad to attend tbe 

 meeting. It ought to be a great success, and deserves our warmest sympathies and 

 co-operation. 



Geology seems, at present, to be passing through what may not inaptly be 

 termed a transitional or met amorphic period in its history, when old-established 

 ideas are rapidly melting away, and under fresh influences are crystallising out 

 into quite other forms. 



' New lights for old ' is the popular cry both in science and politics, and, like 

 the Athenians, nothing delights us more than to hear tell of some new thing. 



If the proposition lately made by Professor Judd, the President of the Geolo- 

 gical Society in London, in his recently delivered Anniversary Address, holds 

 good, that mineralogy is the father of geology, it seems not improbable that, like 

 Saturn's offspring, our science is in danger of being devoured by its reputed parent ; 

 for certainly mineralogy, in the form of petrologj-, has of late years most largely 

 occupied the geological field, whilst palaeontology, once the favourite child of 

 geology, is in its turn threatened with imminent extinction, as a separate study, bv 



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