730 REPORT—1899. 
The vexed questions of the origin of Raised Beaches and Sunk Forests might in 
like manner be elucidated by well-devised measurements. It is astonishing upon 
what loose and unreliable evidence the elevation or depression of coast-lines has 
often been asserted. On shores where proofs of a recent change of level are 
observable it would not be difficult to establish by accurate observation whether 
any such movements are taking place now, and, if they are, to determine their rate, 
The old attempts of this kind along the coasts of Scandinavia might be resumed 
with far more precision and on a much more extended scale. Methods of instru- 
mental research have been vastly improved since the days of Celsius and Linnzeus. 
Mere eye-observations would not supply sufficiently accurate results. When the 
datum-line has been determined with rigorous accuracy, the minutest changes of 
level, such as would be wholly inappreciable to the senses, might be detected and 
recorded. If such a system of watch were maintained along coasts where there is 
reason to believe that some rise or fall of land is taking place, it would be possible 
to follow the progress of the movement and to determine its rate. 
But I must not dwell longer on examples of the advantages which geology 
would gain from a far more general and systematic adoption of methods of experi- 
ment and measurement in elucidation of the problems of the science. I have 
referred to a few of those which have a more special bearing on the question of 
geological time, but it is obvious that the same methods might be extended into 
almost every branch of geological dynamics. While we gladly and gratefully 
recognise the large amount of admirable work that has already been done by the 
adoption of these practical methods, from the time of Hall, the founder of experi- 
mental geology, down to our own day, we cannot but feel that our very apprecia- 
tion of the gain which the science has thus derived increases the desire to see the 
practice still further multiplied and extended. I am confident that it is in this 
direction more than in any other that the next great advances of geology are to be 
anticipated. 
While much may be done by individual students, it is less to their single 
efforts than to the combined investigations of many fellow-workers that I look 
most hopefully for the accumulation of data towards the determination of the 
present rate of geological changes. I would, therefore, commend this subject to 
the geologists of this and other countries as one in which individual, national, and 
international co-operation might well be enlisted. We already possess an institu- 
tion which seems well adapted to undertake and control an enterprise of the kind 
suggested. The International Geological Congress, which brings together our 
associates from all parts of the globe, would confer a lasting benefit on the science 
if it could organise a system of combined observation in any single one of the 
departments of inquiry which I have indicated or in any other which might be 
selected. We need not at first be too ambitious. The simplest, easiest, and least 
costly series of observations might be chosen for a beginning. The work might be 
distributed among tie different countries represented in the Congress. Hach 
nation would be entirely free in its selection of subjects for investigation, and 
would have the stimulus of co-operation with other nations in its work. The 
Congress will hold its triennial gathering next year in Paris, and if such an 
organisation of research as I have suggested could then be inaugurated a great 
impetus would thereby he given to geological research, and France, again become 
the birthplace of another scientific movement, would acquire a fresh claim to the 
admiration and gratitude of geologists in every part of the globe. 
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 14. 
The following Papers and Reports were read :— 
1. On the Relation between the Dover and Franco-Belgian Coal Basins. 
By Rosert Erueripce, F.L.S. 
That the history of the stratified rocks of the south-east of England, and South- 
eastern Kent in particular, isin a fair way of being determined there is little doubt, 
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