ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT. xl'lX 



formations of the Bahamas, supplementary to those formerly com- 

 municated from the Berm.udas by this distinguished officer. To 

 Canadian geology Dr. Bigsby has added his account of the structure 

 of the Quebec district. Mr. Dawson and Mr. Poole have added to 

 our knowledge of the details of the Carboniferous formations of Nova 

 Scotia. Dr. Sutherland has given us a full account of his obser- 

 ^ vations in Baffin's Bay and among our inhospitable Arctic possessions, 

 as well as notes on the neiglibouring coasts of Greenland. Mr. 

 Wathen has described the gold fields of Victoria ; and to return to 

 the Atlantic, Colonel Heneken has offered a contribution to the 

 geology of the West Indies. On this last-named subject I would 

 venture to offer a few remarks. 



It is much to be desired that some able and active geologist, prac- 

 tised in the observation of the newer formations of Europe, would 

 visit and explore the West Indian archipelago. There is no finer 

 field for fresh research, and all that has hitherto been done, from the 

 early labours of Sir Henry De la Beche in Jamaica, to the latest 

 memoir, that of Colonel Heneken on San Domingo, communicated 

 to the Society in March last, holds out a rich promise of reward to 

 the man able and willing for the work. Colonel Heneken' s account 

 of San Domingo, with the accompanying palfeontological comments 

 by Mr. Moore and Mr. Lonsdale, is one of singular interest for the 

 tertiary geologist and the inquirer into the geographical arrangements 

 of the later epochs. The demonstration of something more than a 

 relation of analogy between the fauna of the San Domingo and 

 Panama tertiaries on the one hand, and that of the existing Panamian 

 and Indo-Pacific regions on the other, is a significant advance, and 

 points to an ancient disjunction between the masses of land in the 

 North American area and those of the South, dating probably about 

 the epoch of the middle tertiaries ; whilst the indication of some iden- 

 tifications, even though few, of ground-living moUusks, not likely to 

 enjoy a deep vertical range, with species living on the European side 

 of the North Atlantic during the Miocene epoch, would seem to 

 indicate an extensive stretch of land or of shallows from the West 

 Indian region Europe-wards, that remarkably accords with some well- 

 known indications afforded by the distribution of existing creatures. 



The number of papers on East Indian geology, referred to as con- 

 tained in our Journal, would of itself be ample evidence of the 

 diligence and zeal of Indian geologists. But the student of the 

 structure of the East must not confine his studies to the transactions 

 of societies at home ; in the journals of Indian Societies he will find 

 many papers of great interest. The excellent report on the geolo- 

 gical structure and mineral wealth of the salt range in the Punjaub, 

 by Dr. Andrew Fleming, is an instance. It may be found in the 

 Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal ; in which work are some 

 remarks by Capt. Young on the much-disputed subject of Laterite. 

 The last-named paper contains interesting notices on the geology of 

 Burmah. Dr. Kelaart, in another eastern periodical, has published 

 his observations on the Laterite of Ceylon. The Journal of the 

 Bombay branch of the Asiatic Society not unfrequently contains 



VOL. X. d 



