Geological Society of London. 141 



times had also much to do with the configuration of some parts of the eountry, and 

 therefore of its river-basins. The evidence of the Oolite series was that it was 

 deposited in an area of gradual depression, which was subsequently again elevated ; 

 and there was no doubt of the existence of a large amount of land over a great part 

 of central England during the deposition of some of the later Oolitic beds. Then 

 again came a depression during the period of the White Chalk. With regard to the 

 Severn valley, he recalled the observations of Sir H. de la Beche as to its having 

 been an ancient marine channel, connecting the estuary of the Ribble and what is 

 now the Bristol Channel. He cited Prof. Phillips to account for the presence of the 

 Lecky quartz pebbles in the valley of the Thames by the existence of ancient lochs 

 in the Glacial sea. 



Mr. Whitaker remarked on the probable extension of the Chalk as far as the Scilly 

 Islands, which was evinced by the flints there found on the surface. He attributed 

 the fact of so many of the streams breaking througbt the Chalk escarpment on the 

 south and so few on the north, to the difference of the dip in the two cases. 



The President could not give in his adhesion to Prof. Ramsay's opinion. To 

 establish so general a view as that propounded, he thought that a more extensive 

 array of facts with regard to the conditions of the river-valleys should' have been 

 adduced. He wished for evidence as to the existence of old river-gravels at a greater 

 elevation above the present river Severn, for instance, than that aiforded by the 

 author. The elevation of the Alps he regarded as not suificient to account for the . 

 lines of drainage in Britain. It was to be borne in mind that during the Quaternary 

 period the excavatory force of the rivers was much greater than at the present 

 day. He thought there was still much to be learnt as to the causes which led to the 

 direction and extent of the present river-valleys, the original rudiments of which 

 were probably due to other causes than river -action. 



Prof. Ramsay, in reply, was inclined to restrict himself to the immediate subject 

 of his paper. With regard to the so-called Straits of Malvern, he accepted the view 

 so far as it assumed that an ancient river-valley had, by submergence, been converted 

 into a strait. He had purposely omitted in his paper all consideration of the Glacial 

 period, for the simple reason that the initial direction of the river-valleys had been 

 given in Preglacial times. His object was merely to show the causes of the initial 

 direction of the rivers ; and he could not be expected, in a paper before the Geological 

 Society, to take these minor points into serious consideration. The Trias he had 

 always regarded as a great freshwater deposit, which of course involved such terrestrial 

 conditions as those which had been pointed out. He could not agree that some 

 intercalations of marine beds destroyed the generally continental character of the 

 Miocene beds of the northern half of Europe. He repudiated the idea of an immediate 

 connexion between the elevation of the Alps and the flow of the Severn, though such 

 a general tilting of the strata as that of which the last elevation of the Alps was one 

 of the principal results, produced its effects upon a wide area in western Europe. 

 The volume of the rivers in former times had nothing to do with his subject ; but the 

 cutting back through escarpments was, he thought, best explained in the manner 

 he had suggested. 



IV. — Annual General Meeting, February IGth, 1872. — Joseph 

 Prestwich, Esq., F.E.S., President, in the Chair. 



The Secretary read the Eeports of the Council, of the Library and 

 Museum Committee, and of the Auditors. The general position of 

 the Society was described as satisfactory, although, owing to the 

 number of deaths which had taken place among the Fellows during 

 the year 1871, the Society did not show the same increase which has 

 characterized former years. 



In presenting the Wollaston Gold Medal to David Forbes, Esq., 

 F.E.S., Sec. G.S., for transmission to Prof. Dana, of Yale College, 

 Connecticut, the President spoke as follows : — 



Mr. Forbes, — ■! have the pleasure to announce that the Wollaston 

 Medal has been conferred on Prof. Dana, of Yale College, New- 

 haven, U.S.; and in handing it to you, in the absence of our Foreign 

 Secretary, Prof. Ansted, for transmission to our Foreign Member, I 

 beg to express the great gratification it affords me that the award of 

 the Coimcil has fallen on so distinguished and veteran a geologist. 



