Notices of Memoirs—Prof. Boyd Dawkins’s Address. 459 
IJ.—Appress to THE GreoLocgicaAL SEcTION OF THE Britis Assocta- 
Trion, Baru, 1888. By W. Boyp Dawxuys, M.A., F.R.S., F.G.5., 
F.S.A., Professor of Geology and Paleontology in Owens College, 
President of the Section. 
N taking the chair occupied twenty-four years ago in this place by 
my honoured master, Professor Phillips, I have been much 
perplexed as to the most fitting lines on which to mould my Address. 
It was open to me to deal with the contributions to our knowledge 
since our last meeting in Manchester in such a manner as to place 
before you 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 meeting, 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 summarize and co-ordinate their work. Indeed, we 
stand too near to it to be able to see the true proportions of the various 
parts. I will merely take this opportunity of offering to our visitors, 
in the name of this section and of Hnglish geologists in general, a 
hearty welcome to our shores, feeling that not only will our science 
be benefited enormously by the simplification of geological nomen- 
clature, but that we ourselves shall derive great advantage by a 
closer personal contact with them 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 while the 
earth was young. The deep-sea explorations have revealed the 
structure and the deposits of the ocean abysses, and the depths sup- 
posed 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 1000 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 Hocene 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 may 
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 
