as President, to the Geological Section. 459 



a considerable amount of locomotion is required to enable visitors to 

 realize the more prominent facts. If there be no great variety of 

 formation in Canada, yet the Alpha and Omega of the geological 

 scale are there most fully represented, from the great Laurentian 

 complex at the base to the amazing evidences of glacial action, in 

 a country where it is possible to travel for a whole day without 

 once quitting a glaciated surface. But Russia presented equal 

 attractions, and in Finland almost identical conditions were ob- 

 served, viz. glacial deposits on Archeean rocks. The great central 

 plain of Eussia, too, with its ample Mesozoic deposits often 

 abounding in fossils, offered attractions" which to some may have 

 been stronger than the mineral riches of the Urals or the striking 

 scenery of the Caucasus. 



It seems almost incredible, even in this age of extraordinary 

 locomotion, that scenes so wide apart were visited by British 

 geologists last autumn. This year we are more domestic in our 

 arrangements, and Section C finds its tent pitched once more on the 

 classic banks of the Bristol Avon, and in that part of England 

 which has no small claim to be regarded as the cradle of English 

 geology. But we may go a step further. For if the strata observed 

 by William Smith during the six years' cutting of the Somersetshire 

 coal-canal imprinted their lessons on his receptive mind, it is also 

 equally true that Devonshire, Cornwall, and West Somerset first 

 attracted the attention of the " Ordnance Geological Survey." And 

 thus it comes to pass that the region which lies between the Bristol 

 Channel and the English Channel claims the respect of geologibts in 

 all parts of the world, not only as the birthplace of stratigraphical 

 palaeontology, but also as the original home of systematic geological 

 survey. 



The city of Bristol lies on the confines of this region, where it 

 shades off north-westwards into the Paljeozoics of Wales, and north- 

 eastwards into the Mesozoics of the Midland Counties. Thei-e are 

 probably few districts which display an equal amount of variety 

 within a limited circumference. The development of the various 

 formations was excellently pourtrayed by Dr. Wright, when he 

 occupied this chair twenty-three years ago — so well indeed, that 

 his address might serve as a textbook on the geology of the district. 

 In the following year (1876) there appeared the Survey Memoir on 

 the Geology of East Somerset and the Bristol Coalfield, by Mr. H. B. 

 Woodward, who has since contributed important memoirs on the 

 Jurassic rocks of Britain, which are so largely developed in Somerset 

 and the adjacent counties. Since that date many papers also have 

 appeared in various journals, and some of these, as might be ex- 

 pected, give new and perhaps more accurate interpretations of 

 phenomena previously described. In addition to this, portions of 

 the south-west of England have been geologically re-surveyed, and 

 in some cases new maps have been published. 



I would call especial attention to the Survey Map on the scale 

 of four miles to the inch, known as the " Index Map," which has 

 recently been issued. Sheet 11 includes this particular district; but 



