Mr, WMtaker's Address to the Geological Section. 461 



Dr. D. a. Scott, F.B.S. — Chief results of "Williamson's work on the 



Cai'boniferous Plants. 

 A. C. Seward. — The Wealclen Flora of England. 

 Wm. Barlow. — On the Eelation between the Morphological Symmetry 



and the Optical Symmeti'y of Crystals. 

 Dr. F. S. Hatcli. — Gold Production in the Witwatersrand Fields. 

 Dr. Coniventz. — On English Amber, with Exhibition of Specimens. 

 Dr. J. G. Garson. — A Paleeolithic Skeleton from the Thames Valley. 



II. — British Association for the Advancement of Science, 

 Ipswich, 1895. — Underground in Suffolk and its Borders : 

 Address to the Geological Section. By W. Whitaker, B.A., 

 F.E.S., F.G.S., President of the Section. 



WHEN the British Association revisits a town it is not unusual 

 for the Sectional Presidents to refer to the addresses of their 

 local predecessors, and to allude to the advance of their science since 

 the former meeting. I have at all events tried to follow this course, 

 with the sad result of having to chronicle a falling back rather than 

 an advance in our methods of procedure ; for at the meeting of 1851 

 all the Sectional Presidents had the wisdom not to give an address, 

 and of all the inventions of later years I look upon the presidential 

 address as perhaps the worst. 



Had I the courage of my opinion I should not now trouble you ; 

 but an official life of over thirty-eight years has led me to do what 

 I am told to do, and to suppress my own ideas of what is right. 

 After all it is the fault of the Sections themselves that they should 

 suffer the evil of addresses. They could disestablish the institution 

 without difficulty. 



On these occasions it is not usual to allude to the personal losses 

 our science has had in the past year ; but there are times when the 

 lack of a familiar presence can hardly be passed over, and since we 

 last met we have lost one of our most constant friends, who had 

 served us long and well, and had been our Secretary for a far longer 

 time than any other holder of that office. When we were at Oxford 

 last summer none of us could have thought that it was our last 

 meeting with William Topley. 



I do not now mean to say anything on the origin or on the classi- 

 fication of the various divisions of the Crag and of the Drift that 

 occur so plentifully around us, and form the staple interest of East 

 Anglian geology. These subjects, which are the more interesting 

 from being controversial, I leave to my brother-hammerers, and 

 without claiming the credit of magnanimity in so doing, having said 

 what I had to say on them in sundry Geological Survey memoirs. 

 The object of this address is to carry you below the surface, and to 

 point out how much our knowledge of the geology of the county in 

 which we meet has been advanced by workers in another field, by 

 engineers and others in their search for water. As far as possible 

 allusion will be made only to work in Suffolk ; but we must occa- 

 sionally invade the neighbouring counties. 



