SECTION C— GEOLOGY. 



PROGRESS IN THE STUDY OF THE 

 LOWER CARBONIFEROUS (AVONIAN) 

 ROCKS OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 



ADDRESS BY 



PROF. S. H. REYNOLDS, M.A., Sc.D., 



PRESIDENT OF THE SECTION. 



It is now about ten years since our science suffered an irreparable loss in 

 the premature death of that brilliant worker on the Carboniferous rocks, 

 Arthur Vaughan. Only twenty years have passed since the publication 

 of his classical paper on the ' Palseontological Sequence in the Carboniferous 

 Limestone of the Bristol Area,' and when we think of what he accomplished 

 during the ten years in which he devoted his scanty leisure to the study 

 of the Lower Carboniferous rocks we may well wonder what he would 

 have achieved by now were he still with us. 



Vaughan's chief work was done at Bristol, but the last few years of 

 his life were spent at Oxford. I hoj^e it is not inappropriate that one 

 who hails from Bristol and was associated with Vaughan in some of his 

 work should choose the Lower Carboniferous rocks for an address at Oxford. 



This subject was not chosen without careful consideration, but it may 

 be doubted whether I am well advised in attempting it. In the first place 

 I am fully aware of the others who are better qualified to deal with it than 

 I am myself. In the second place there is so much work in progress, par- 

 ticularly in the Midlands and in the North, and there is still such difEerence 

 of opinion on many important problems, that there is much to be said for 

 postponing any such attempt as I am now making. Part of the ground, 

 too, has been covered by the report of a committee of this Association 

 jjiesented at the last Meeting (Southampton), while Prof. Kendall's 

 chapter in the ' Handbuch der rcgionalen Geologic ' renders any general 

 survey of the succession unnecessary. I have therefore chosen for con- 

 sideration a number of subjects unrelated except in so far as they are 

 concerned with the study of the Avouiau rocks. 



All the workers to whom I have applied for information have most 

 kindly and willingly helped me, and I should like to acknowledge my 

 special indebtedness to Mr. R. 6. S. Hudson, Dr. Stanley Smith, and 

 particularly to Mr. Ernest Dixon. Thanks to the help I have received I am 

 hopeful that, although this address contains little that is novel, it may 

 prove a useful summary. 



1926 ' ¥ 



