lii 



PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



(ISii'i) of the excellent and truly valuable works of Dale Owen (on 

 Wisconsin, &c.) and James Hall (Palfeontology of New York), 

 places them out of my plan ; botli are of the highest merit, and 

 ought to be carefully perused by every British student of palaeozoic 

 formations. The beautiful and laborious map of Belgium by Dumont, 

 one of the great works of our day, has only just come to hand in Eng- 

 land; as likewise have the very welcome second volume of Professor 

 Studer's ' Geology of Switzerland,' and the commencement of a na- 

 tional work on the geological survey of the Netherlands. 



The admirable 'History of the Progress of Geology from 1834 to 

 1852,' by Vicomte d'Archiac, a work that does equal honour to the 

 Geological Society of France and the French government, under 

 whose auspices it is published, continues to advance steadily, though 

 still far from its completion. During 1853 the second part of the 

 fifth volume has been issued. This part is devoted, like the last, to 

 the Cretaceous formations ; the regions treated of being the Iberian 

 peninsula, Italy, the countries around the Levant, those around the 

 Baltic, the north-west and centre of Germany, Poland, Gallicia, the 

 Carpathians, Russia, Asia, Africa, and America. A prefatory chapter 

 is occupied with the discussion of some general principles involved in 

 the consideration of the phsenomena afterwards described, and in a 

 concluding essay the author reviews the geographical and stratigra- 

 phical distribution of the Cretaceous formation considered as a whole. 

 The essential characters of this work are such as to preclude any 

 analysis in an Address of this kind. I feel bound, how3ver, as one 

 of the many who feel grateful to M. d'Archiac for the iiappreciable 

 assistance afforded by this labour of love on his part, to bear the 

 strongest testimony to the aliility, learning, philosophical spirit, and 

 impartiality with which he has executed so far the difiicult and 

 delicate task undertaken by him in the composition of this History. 

 The accession to our ranks of a new and able observer is always a 

 subject of commemoration and congratulation ; still more so ought 

 it to be, when our gain is in some partially-explored region, and one 

 where men of science are few and far between. We can boast of 

 such an accession in Senhor Carlos Ribeiro, wdiose excellent notices of 

 the Carboniferous and Silurian formations of the neighbourhood of 

 Busa90 in Portugal have been communicated to us in an ably-con- 

 densed memoir by Mr. Sharpe, with notes of high value from several 

 of our Members. We may hope that this paper, a valuable addition 

 to the series of contributions to the geology of Portugal, mostly due 

 to the personal labours of our Treasurer, is a precursor of a full and 

 detailed exploration, by native observers, of a region in great part as 

 yet virgin ground for our science. 



The geological structure of a large portion of Spain has been out- 

 lined in masterly style by i\IM. de Verneuil and Collomb in a memoir 

 entitled "Coup d'ocil sur la Constitution Geologique de plusieurs 

 Provinces de I'Espagne," communicated to the Geological Society of 

 France. To every scientific traveller visiting the Peninsula hereafter 

 this excellent treatise will be indispensable. It is illustrated by sec- 

 tions and figures of organic remains ; a geological map of Spain is 



