Reports and Proceedings. 473 



alone, but was aided by hot emanations from the interior of the earth. 

 M. Daubree argues in the same way respecting such beds of dolomite to 

 the formation of which the sea may have contributed. These few 

 remarks will suffice to give some notion of the kind of questions 

 which M. Daubree treats of in the paper under consideration, which 

 is one of the most extensive generalizations on great geological pro- 

 blems which have apj)eared for some years. G. A, L. 



Address to the Geological Section at the Opening of the Forty- 

 third Meeting of the British Association at Bradford, September i8th, 

 1873. By John Phillips, M.A., D.C.L., Oxon., LL.D. Cambridge and 

 Dublin, F.R.S., F.G.S., President of tlie Section. 



More than half the life of an octogenarian separates us from the birthday of the 

 British Association in Yorkshire ; and few of those who then helped to inaugurate 

 a new scientific power can be here to-day to estimate the work which it accom- 

 plished, and judge of the plans which it proposes to follow in future. Would that 

 we might still have with us the wise leading of Harcourt, and the intrepid advocacy 

 of Sedgwick — names dear to Geology, and always to be honoured in Yorkshire ! 



The natural sciences in general, and Geology in particular, have derived from the 

 British Association some at least of the advantages so boldly claimed at its origin : 

 some impediments have been removed from their path ; society looks with approba- 

 tion on their efforts ; their progress is hailed among national triumphs, though 

 achieved for the most part by voluntary labour ; and the results of their discoveries 

 are written in the prosperous annals of our native industry. 



In most cases scientific truth is established before that practical application is 

 possible which constitutes a commercial revolution and is welcomed with applause 

 by the community. What a change has happened within forty, nay, twenty years, 

 in the ironworks of this country ! But long before the foundations of fui-naces 

 were laid at Middlesborough, the ferruginous bands in the Yorkshire cliffs had been 

 often explored by geologists, and waited only for the railway to yield millions of 

 tons of ore. The occurrence of good ironstone in the Liassic strata of Eng- 

 land is a source of profit as far to the south as Oxfordshire ; Northamptonshire 

 yields it in abundance at the base of the Oolites, and Lincolnshire above them, 

 while on the Yorkshire coast, in addition, we have smaller beds in the midst of the 

 Oolites, through nearly the whole range associated with poor and thin coal. 



To determine the extent of the British Coal-fields, and the probable duration of 

 the treasures which they yield, and to discover, if possible, other fields quite un- 

 dreamed of by practical colliers, are problems which geology has been invited to 

 solve ; and much progress has been made in these important inquiries by private 

 research and the aid of a public commission. The question most interesting to the 

 community — the extent to which known Coal-fields reach beneath superior strata, 

 and the situation of other fields having no outcrop to the surface — can often be 

 answered on purely geological grounds, within not very wide limits of probability. 



If, for example, we ask how far to the eastward the known Coal-strata may ex- 

 tend under the Vale of York, a reasonable answer is furnished by Mr. Hull and 

 the Government Commission. The whole great coal deposit extending from Brad- 

 ford to Nottingham, passes under the Magnesian Limestone, and may be found for 

 at least a few miles in breadth within attainable depths. It passes under a part of 

 the Vale of York, probably south of the city. But before attempting to give a 

 practical value to this opinion, it may be well to remember that, fully tried, the 

 experiment would be too costly for individual enterprise, while if successful it 

 would benefit more than a county — and that not only a large outlay must be pro- 

 vided for it, but arrangements made for persevering through several years in the 

 face of many difficulties, and perhaps eventual disappointment. Still, sooner or 

 later, the trial must be made ; and geology must direct the operation. 



Considerations of this kind invest with more than momentary interest the great 

 undertaking to which Mr. Godwin- Austen called attention in his address to the 



