197 



nated; and there is not in the present outline of the country any 

 indication of the surface over which they once extended. 



Such, Gentlemen, have been the prominent subjects of discussion 

 during our meetings of the past year. Before 1 proceed to other 

 questions, let me express my thanks to Mr. Vernon, for the zeal 

 with which he has investigated, and the fidelity with which he has 

 described, a deep excavation at North Cliff in Yorkshire. Under 

 the ancient gravel of the district are found regular deposits of 

 river silt, containing bones of the mammoth, the horse, the urus, 

 the rhinoceros, the wolf, the ox, and deer ; mingled with thirteen 

 species of land or lacustrine shells, absolutely identical with those 

 now living in the neighbouring district. Phaenomena like these 

 have a tenfold interest, when regarded as the extreme link of a 

 great chain, binding the present order of things to that of older 

 periods in which the existing forms of animated nature seem one 

 after another to disappear. 



Twenty years are not yet passed away since MM. Cuvier and 

 Brongniart first published their researches on the geological struc- 

 ture of the Paris basin. The innumerable details exhibited in their 

 various essays ; the beautiful conclusions drawn from unexpected 

 facts ; the happy combination of mineralogical and zoological evi- 

 dence ; the proofs of successive revolutions, till then unheard of 

 in the physical history of the earth — all these things together^, 

 not merely threw new light on a subject before involved in compa- 

 rative darkness, but gave new powers and new means of induction 

 to those who should in after times attempt any similar investiga- 

 tions. 



Mankind are, however, dazzled and astonished by great disco- 

 veries, as well as guided and instructed : and for some years after 

 the publication of these admirable works, the naturalists of various 

 countries, whose attention had been so loudly called to the deposits 

 above the chalk, saw in them only a repetition of what was already 

 described, and of which the true type was in every case to be sought 

 among the formations of the Paris basin. Investigations conducted 

 in this spirit sometimes ended in disappointment. But this was not 

 the spirit recommended in the incomparable Essay of Cuvier*; for 

 after exhibiting the true method of geological induction, and de- 

 scribing the intense and almost tormenting interest with which he 

 had followed out his own investigations, he points to the long series 

 of deposits in the Sub-Apennine hills, and states his conviction that 

 in them lies concealed the true secret of the last operations of the 

 ocean. 



Since that discourse was written, much has been done; but much 

 more still remains to be done. It has been my pleasing task to place 

 before you the labours of some of our own body in illustrating the 

 recent geological periods in the history of the earth : by such de- 

 tails alone, can we expect to comprehend the more intricate pheno- 

 mena of still older periods, and to connect them with the great phy- 

 sical laws by which all matter is governed. 



* See Discours Preliminaire, p. 112, 1st edition. 



