420 Reports and Proceedings — 



to the belief tliat in the district north of London Carboniferous 

 strata may be found. Unfortunately the expense of conducting deep 

 borings, even with the admirable appliances of the Diamond Boring 

 Company, is so great that I almost despair of another experimental 

 borehole like that carried out in the Wealden district under the 

 auspices of Mr. Willett, being undertaken. 



In the department of theoretical geology I would call your atten- 

 tion to some experiments by M. Daubree, of which he has given 

 accounts at different times to the French Academy of Sciences. In 

 these experiments he has attempted to reproduce on a small scale 

 various geological phenomena, such as faulting, cleavage, jointing, 

 and the elevation of mountain chains. Although the analogy 

 between work in the laboratory and that on the grand scale of 

 nature may not in all cases be perfect, yet these experiments are in 

 the highest degree instructive, and reflect no little credit on the 

 ingenuity of the distinguished chief of the Ecole des Mines. 



With regard to recent progress in palaeontology, I must venture 

 to refer you to Professor Alleyne Nicholson's inaugural address 

 lately delivered to the Edinburgh Geological Society, but I cannot 

 pass over in silence the magnificent discoveries in North America, 

 which are principally due to the researches of Professors Marsh, 

 Leidy, and Cope. The Diceratherium, a rhinoceros with two horns 

 placed transversely, and the Dinoceras, somewhat allied to the 

 elephant, but with six horns, arranged in pairs, are as marvellous 

 as some of the beasts seen by Sir John Maundevile on his travels, 

 or heard of by Pliny. But perhaps the most remarkable series of 

 remains ever discovered are those which so completely link the 

 existing Horse with the EoMppus and OroMppus, and still farther 

 extend the pedigree of the genus Equus, which had already been 

 some years ago so ably traced by Professor Huxley. 



Of these American discoveries, as well as those made in the 

 Tertiary beds of Europe, M. Albert Gaudry has largely availed 

 himself in his recent beautiful volume on the links in the animal 

 world in geological times, a work which will long be a text-book on 

 the inter-relation of different orders, genera, and species. I am 

 tempted to make use of some portions of M. Gaudry's own analysis 

 of the book, which he communicated to the Geological Society of 

 France. Beginning with the Marsupials of the close of the Secon- 

 dary and beginning of the Tertiary period, he shows that they are 

 succeeded by such animals as the Pterodon, the Hycenodon, the 

 Proviverra, and Arctocyon, which present a mixture of marsupial 

 and placental characters, and to some extent justify a theory of the 

 transition from one order to the other. He next examines the 

 marine Mammalia, and points out that, so far as at present known, 

 they make their appearance later than those of the land, and that 

 the examination of the pelvis of the Ralitlierium tends to support 

 the idea that the mammals, such as the Sirenians, which at the present 

 day have no hind-limbs, are descended from terrestrial quadrupeds, 

 for those limbs in the Halitherium are much less reduced than in its 

 recent successors, the dugong and manatee. After tracing the 



