ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT. XXXV 



of an Orthoceras, by Mr. James Hall of New York, after having 

 noticed the observations of Mr. Anthony of Cincinnati, formerly 

 communicated to this Society, our colleague proceeds to remark on 

 the conditions favourable for the preservation of the solid portions 

 of animal remains in the rock in which the supposed soft parts of 

 the Orthoceras were found, and to show that appearances, similar 

 to those observed by Mr. Anthony, had been seen by him for ten 

 years in the shales of New York. Mr. Hall considers that these 

 appearances are fallacious, and that the sac-like envelopes are merely 

 concretions which are to be found enveloping other organic remains 

 as well as the shells of the Orthoceras, instances of which he adduces 

 in North American rocks. The extent to which animal structures 

 may be preserved under favourable conditions forms an inquiry of 

 much interest. As investigations have proceeded, facts as to the 

 preservation of more perishable parts than we were once accustomed 

 to consider probable, have accumulated. When the Dean of West- 

 minster first brought forward facts respecting the preservation of the 

 faeces of fish and of saurians in a fossil state, even before these fseces 

 were excluded from the bodies of the animals themselves, much 

 doubt was, you will recollect, cast on these views. Now, however, 

 coprolites are as much admitted to be fossils as the bones of ani- 

 mals and the shells of molluscs. Last year we had occasion to notice 

 the views of Dr. Mantell and Mr. Charlesworth respecting the pre- 

 servation of the soft parts of molluscs by means of silica. The 

 beautiful preservation of the fossil described by Professor Owen, 

 from the Oxford clay, and of the Belemnites from the same deposit 

 mentioned by Dr. Mantell, and many other cases of the fine pre- 

 servation of organic remains under favouring conditions, will be in 

 your recollection ; so that while with Mr. Hall we may be prepared 

 to consider the appearances he notices as simple concretions, such 

 as surround other fossils, we may still expect to find the less firm 

 portions of animals better preserved than might once have been 

 supposed. We are more especially led to this opinion in consequence 

 of some late researches of Dr. Lyon Playfair, who found that there 

 was still much animal matter remaining in some fossil shells col- 

 lected, during the progress of the Geological Survey, from certain 

 Silurian rocks in Wales. 



In a memorandum respecting certain fossiliferous localities, appended 

 to a paper by Professor Ramsay and Mr. Aveline on the structure 

 of parts of North and South Wales, Professor E. Forbes concludes, 

 that the sandstones skirting the Longmynds belong to the upper 

 beds of the Caradoc series, and were deposited in a deep sea around 

 the margin of land, that land steep and high, and formed of the 

 Llandeilo flags, or of older rocks. He also infers that they are in 

 sequence with certain limestone bands at the base of the Wenlock 

 series, and that the Meifod fossiliferous beds are of a somewhat older 

 date, probably equivalent to the middle part of the Caradoc beds. 

 Inferences regarding the condition of the sea as respects its prox- 

 imity to land, and depth of water, drawn from organic remains, un- 

 doubtedly require very great care, more especially when the character 



c2 



