XXXll PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



giferous bodies of the chalk, was maintained by Dr. Buckland, and 

 the general theory of the separation or segregation of the siliceous 

 matter from the compound pulp of lime and silex, of which the 

 chalk deposit originally consisted, and of its assimilation by the 

 organic tissues giving rise to those flinty bodies so common in the 

 chalk, was fully and clearly explained. 



December 3, 1819. — xittention had been directed by Dr. Kidd 

 and Professor Playfair to the Lickey Hill in Worcestershire as the 

 possible nearest source of the siliceous pebbles accumulated on the 

 plains of Warwickshire and the JNIidland Counties, on the summit of 

 some hills near Oxford, and in the valley of the Thames from Oxford 

 to its termination below London, when Dr. Buckland, in whose 

 mind the contemplation of the grand effects which may be produced 

 by the action of water in some of its most striking forms had already 

 obtained a powerful influence, proceeded to examine, in conjunction 

 with Count Brenner of Vienna, the Lickey Hills. Subdividing them 

 into two sections, the Upper and the Lower Lickey, he showed, that 

 whilst the upper belongs to the overlying Red Sandstone, the lower 

 Lickey, like the Stiper Stones, and the siliceous beds at the south-east 

 base of May Hill, underhes, as Mr. Aikin had pointed out, what was 

 then called the grauwacke slate. Dr. Buckland inferring that the true 

 place of the quartz rock of the Lickey is " towards the lower extre- 

 mity of that series of depositions which are usually associated under 

 the name of grauwacke formations." It is curious to read these names 

 of rocks in association with the terra incognita of the grauwacke for- 

 mation, which have now been rendered so familiar to us in connexion 

 with * Siluria ' ; but though Dr. Buckland did not then anticipate the 

 important geological position they would once hold, he afterwards 

 pointed out how desirable it would be to give them a careful exami- 

 nation. The ready disintegration of the Lickey rock, in conse- 

 quence of its brecciated structure, was pointed out ; and Dr. Buck- 

 land, in the second part of his paper, considers the evidence which 

 the transport of these pebbles over a wide range of area, as before 

 noticed, bears to the fact of a recent deluge. It is unnecessary to 

 follow the author in his reasonings upon this subject, or in his care- 

 ful tracking, as it were, of the pebbles on their onward course, as no 

 one can doubt the fact of such transport, though many may demur 

 to the conclusions drawn from it. The same may be said in respect 

 to the bones of the Mammoth, Rhinoceros, Hippopotamus, and other 

 animals found in the so-called diluvial gravel ; but even in this 

 paper, where the object was to trace out the action of the deluge of 

 Scripture history, Dr. Buckland was a true geologist, and already 

 acknowledged the importance of the great principle of ordinary, as 

 contrasted with extraordinary causes, by representing deluges as one 

 class of ordinary causes ; the Mosaic deluge being " the latest dilu- 

 vian catastrophe that has affected the surface of our globe." 



April 19, 1822. — In order not to break the continuity of Dr. 

 Buckland' s series of communications to the Society, I reserve the 

 consideration of his able paper on the Alps, as well as of his ' Reli- 

 quiae Diluvianse,' and the paper which he read to the Royal Society 



