ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT. xliii 



at Cowes and Osborne. At the latter locality, and there alone, the 

 peculiar series to which I gave provisionally the inconvenient name of 

 St. Helens, form a part of the surface of the island, so as to admit 

 of being delineated on the map, for vi^hich reason I would, in ac- 

 cordance with the remainder of my nomenclature, designate them by 

 the name of the district, and style them, in preference, the Osborne 

 Series. Here also, in consequence of a considerable fault that runs 

 in the course of the Medina, the Headon beds proper are brought up 

 on the shore at East Cowes. A visit to the French tertiaries during 

 last autumn has gone far to confirm the scheme of continental 

 equivalents that I submitted to the Society, and the view which I 

 maintained of the essentially Eocene affinities of our Hempstead 

 and Bembridge series. I am inclined still to maintain that our suc- 

 cession of Middle and Upper Eocenes is more complete and continuous 

 than that met vrith in either France or Belgium, the equivalents of 

 our Bembridge marls and Lower Hempsteads being probably de- 

 ficient in the former country, whilst those of our Headon series are 

 absent in the latter. It is through the over-estimated value assigned 

 to these breaks that the discordance in the opinions of geologists re- 

 specting the degree of relation between the Middle and Upper Eocenes 

 in a great manner would seem to depend. 



We owe to the Marchioness of Hastings an excellent detailed account 

 of the Hordwell fluvio-marine section, the scene of the diligent re- 

 searches during several years of that distinguished and zealous lady- 

 geologist, whose contributions to British eocene palseontology have 

 been among the most valuable and interesting made of late years. 



The newer tertiaries and superficial deposits have received of late 

 a considerable share of attention, but not more than they deserve. 

 As yet we are scarcely in a condition to generalize upon them with 

 safety, but are evidently fast advancing towards that desired point. 

 Minute and repeated local observations constitute the soundest data 

 for our guidance. Mr. Trimmer, who for years has devoted a con- 

 siderable portion of his attention to this important, though not 

 generally attractive department of geology, has communicated several 

 papers to the Society, among which that constituting the third part of 

 his essay, " On the origin of the soils which cover the Chalk of Kent," 

 is peculiarly interesting and instructive. Mr. Morris and the Rev. Mr. 

 De la Condamine have also contributed valuable notes. The whole 

 subject may be reported upon as in progress, and, for the present, I re- 

 serve my comments. In the mean time, I would strongly urge upon 

 British geologists the propriety of a careful comparison of the phseno- 

 mena and features of the drifts, gravels, and superficial deposits of 

 our southern districts with those of the neighbouring provinces of the 

 continent. I believe that an investigation of this kind, which must 

 be done personally, since continental memoirs scarcely afford sufficient 

 data for the work, would tend to rectify many of our prevailing 

 notions respecting their deposits. I would especially suggest a fresh 

 examination of the fragments of older and igneous rocks met with in 

 some of the drifts of the southern half of England, and hitherto too 

 generally assumed to be of northern derivation. There are sources to 



