528 



shall be found consistent with the interest of the Society, to carry- 

 out the recommendation of the Finance Committee, that the amount 

 to be expended in publication in any given year shall not exceed the 

 sum which, in the annual estimate, shall appear to be the excess of 

 income over ordinary expenditure. 



During the year 1 844 only one Fellow has compounded : this 

 composition has been funded, together with three others received in 

 1842 and one received in 1843, the funding of which the Council 

 had found it expedient to delay. 



The legacy of Mr, T. Botfield, announced in the Report of last 

 year, has cdso been funded. By these additions the value of the 

 funded property of the Society has been raised from £2598 (the 

 amount stated last year) to £2896 lis. 3d. At the close of 1844 

 the number of living compounders was 116, and the amount which 

 had been received from them in lieu of annual contributions was 

 £3654, thereby reducing the difference between the amount received 

 from living compounders, and the actual value of the funded pro- 

 perty of the Society, to the sum of £757 8s. 9d. 



The office of Curator and Librarian has, to the great regret of the 

 Council, become vacant by the appointment of Prof. Forbes to the 

 office of Palaeontologist to the Museum of Economic Geology : the 

 Council were consequently compelled to look out for a competent 

 successor. Out of the considerable number of deserving candidates 

 they resolved on appointing Prof. Ansted, Fellow of Jesus College, 

 Cambridge, to the vacant office with the title of Vice-Secretary ; 

 and this appointment has been subsequently confirmed by the General 

 Meeting, to whom, in conformity with the bye-laws, it was commu- 

 nicated. 



The mode of publishing the Proceedings of the Society in an illus- 

 trated form, contemplated in the last annual Address, not having 

 met with that sale which would have justified the Council in its 

 continuation, owing to the inadequacy of the receipts as compared 

 with the estimated expenditure, which would have been about £500 

 per annum, compelled the Council to enter into arrangements which 

 will diminish the call on the funds of the Society, and will, they 

 trust, ensure that regularity of publication, no less important to 

 the public than essential to the interests and character of the So- 

 ciety, 



They have consequently to announce, that in the month of De- 

 cember last they signed an agreement with Messrs, Longman and 

 Co., the immediate result of which was the publication, on the first 

 of this month (February), of the first number of the "Quarterly Journal 

 of the Geological Society." Notwithstanding the short time allowed 

 for its preparation, the Council feel confident that the appearance and 

 contents of this number will convince the members of the Society 

 that no effort has been left untried to ensure its permanent success. 

 The agreement has been made for one year, renewable at the expiration 

 of that period ; and some of the principal conditions are as follows : — 

 The work shall be edited by the Vice- Secretary of the Geological 

 Society, under the control of its Council ; the proceedings of the 



