S4 Reviews — Royal Geological Society of Cornwall. 



Eoderick Murchison's opinions expressed at Nottingham were given 

 at lengtli, and Mr. C. Fox went on to say, and it should be recollected 

 that he has been acquainted with mining all his life, that " no prac- 

 tical ventilation would enable men to work at a depth of 2000 yards." 

 The address concluded with some arguments in opposition to Dar- 

 winism, and Grove's Continuity. 



The first paper was by Mr. W. J. Henwood, F.E.S., F.Gr.S., " on the 

 Berehaven Mines, near Cork," A short communication followed 

 from Mr. John S. Ellis, F.G.S., in which he expressed his opinion 

 that the hardness and strength of some old Cornish mortar, which he 

 exhibited, were due to the admixture of elvan, a volcanic rock, just 

 as some of the Italian mortar owes its solidity to pozzolana. 



The last paper was by Mr. Nicholas Whitley, entitled, " Notes on 

 the contorted strata of Hartland." 



This Society, which was instituted in 1814:, is so distant, and has 

 apparently done so little of late years, that it is hardly known to 

 some people. Yet on looking through the Transactions, one is struck 

 by the vast accumulation of facts, and capital papers by Mr. Joseph 

 Carne, Mr. John Hawkins, Dr. John Forbes, Dr. Henry Boase, and 

 above all, Mr. W. J. Henwood, who is still engaged in preparing for 

 the press the eighth volume of the Society's Transactions. If this at all 

 resembles the fifth volume, also, entirely written by Mr. Henwood, 

 it will be a master-piece of accurate and careful observation. One 

 feels that it is a great pity that a good Society, which has done so much 

 in its day, should be showing so little sign of active life. To judge 

 from the papers read at the meeting, there can be but few working 

 members of the Society, for there was not a single paper on the 

 Geology of the Duchy, so pre-eminent above most other parts of the 

 kingdom for the advantages it possesses for the study of Geology, 

 presenting as it does, such fine cliff-sections, and affording to the ob- 

 server the opportunity of studying rocks at a great depth below the 

 surface. The phenomena of mineral veins form an interesting branch 

 of geological study ; every day fresh sections are being laid open, new 

 veins or ''lodes" are often cut and worked upon. 



No doubt the dearth of papers may partly arise from the tardiness of 

 the Society in printing its Transactions, and authors prefer sending 

 their papers to other Societies, where they will sooner appear in print. 

 Now the remedy for this lies partly with the authors themselves, and 

 partly with the Society ; for were the number of papers read during 

 the year sufficient to form a respectable pamphlet, say, half as big as an 

 ordinary number of the Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society 

 of London, then the Society need not be afraid of printing and 

 circulating its Transactions at once. But now the answer to 

 reproaches of tardiness is, "If we print a small pamphlet of a dozen 

 or so pages, it wiU get lost, and when the time comes for binding 

 there will be nothing to bind." The Society cannot expect to 

 have a sufficient supply of papers to form a respectable pamphlet, 

 if it holds but one meeting every year. Quarterly meetings at the 

 very least should be held, and we think that the Society would do 

 well to imitate some of its brethren in the Midland Counties — and 



