358 



movements, are points which the limits of this discourse will not 

 allow me to discuss at present. Mr. Mammatt contends that these 

 enormous shifts were not effected by volcanic convulsions, but simply 

 by a quiet and uniform operation accompanying the desiccation, 

 shrinking, and induration of dense masses of argillaceous and other 

 rocks, an opinion which, however ingenious, seems irreconcileable 

 with the evidence of violent disruption with which this and other 

 coal-fields abound. Mr. Mammatt's volume is illustrated by more 

 than one hundred plates of fossil plants, but it is much to be re- 

 gretted that before executing such costly illustrations the author 

 did not obtain the assistance of a skilful botanist, who might have 

 selected the most important and might have added descriptions, 

 without which mere figures can scarcely ever convey accurate in- 

 formation. 



Early in the spring of last year an application was made by the Mas- 

 ter General and Board of Ordnance to Dr. Buckland and Mr. Sedg- 

 wick, as Professors of Geology in the Universities of Oxford and Cam- 

 bridge, and to myself, as President of this Society, to offer our opi- 

 nion as to the expediency of combining a geological examination of 

 the English counties with the geographical survey now in progress. 

 In compliance with this requisition we drew up a joint report, in 

 which we endeavoured to state fully our opinion as to the great ad- 

 vantages which must accrue from such an undertaking, not only as 

 calculated to promote geological science, which would alone be a 

 sufficient object, but also as a work of great practical utility, bear- 

 ing on agriculture, mining, road-making, the formation of canals and 

 rail-roads, and other branches of national industry. The enlight- 

 ened views of the Board of Ordnance were warmly seconded by 

 the present Chancellor of the Exchequer, and a grant was obtained 

 from the Treasury to defray the additional expenses which will be 

 incurred in colouring geologically the Ordnance county maps. This 

 arrangement may justly be regarded as an economical one, as those 

 surveyors who have cultivated geology can with small increase of 

 labour, when exploring the minute topography of the ground, trace 

 out the boundaries of the principal mineral groups. This end, how- 

 ever, could only be fully accomplished by securing the cooperation 

 of an experienced and able geologist, who might organize and direct 

 the operations : and I congratulate the Society that our Foreign 

 Secretary, Mr. De la Beche, has been chosen to discharge an office 

 for which he is so eminently qualified. 



At the same time that measures are thus in train for complet- 

 ing a Geological Map of England on a magnificent scale, the Map 

 of Scotland, by Dr. MacCulloch, which has been so long and im- 

 patiently expected, is at length on the eve of publication. But at 

 the moment when I can announce this welcome intelligence we 

 have to deplore the sudden loss of this distinguished philosopher. 

 The first paper in the first volume of our Transactions was from 

 the pen of Dr. MacCulloch, and subsequent volumes contain no 

 less than eighteen of his memoirs. It would lead me far beyond 

 my present limits were I to attempt to give a general analysis of 



