ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT. XXXIX 



rodactylus macronyxj discovered by Miss Mary Anning in the blue 

 lias of Lyme Regis, and stated the occurrence of the elytra of coleop- 

 terous insects at Stonesfield, associated with the remains of Pterodac- 

 tyles, of which such insects were probably the food. He expressed 

 also his opinion that the remains of supposed birds at Tilgate Forest, 

 were probably portions of Pterodactyles ; adding a doubt " whether 

 there be any certain evidence of the existence of fossil birds in strata 

 more ancient than the tertiary." He appears to have shared these 

 judicious opinions with the well-known and able palaeontologist, Mr. 

 J. S. Miller of Bristol. 



February 6, 1829. — In another paper, read the same evening. Dr. 

 Buckland describes the Coprolites or fossil faeces of Saurians, which 

 he had discovered in the lias of Lyme Regis and in various other 

 formations in such quantities that a stratum of "many miles in 

 extent and many inches in thickness " was in one- fourth part of its 

 substance composed of balls of coprolites. This discovery was the 

 result of Dr. Buckland' s previous identification of the album grsecum 

 as excrementitious matter of Hyaenas in the Cave of Kirkdale ; and 

 glancing, as it were, over the long series of organic life and death, he 

 concludes that, " in formations of all ages, from the first creation of 

 vertebral animals to the comparatively recent period at which Hya3nas 

 accumulated album graecum in their antediluvian dens, the faeces of 

 aquatic and terrestrial animals have been preserved ; the coprolites 

 being records of warfare waged by successive generations of inhabit- 

 ants of our planet on one another, the imperishable phosphate of 

 lime derived from their digested skeletons having become embalmed 

 in the substance and foundations of the everlasting hills ; the car- 

 nivora in each period of the world's history fulfilling their destined 

 office, — to check excess in the progress of life and maintain the 

 balance of creation." This was a great and bold generalization, 

 worthy of a geologist whose aim it was to give a faithful record of 

 the early history of our planet ; and we may fairly say that so 

 sublime a conclusion was never before drawn from materials of so 

 humble, so obscure a nature. 



April 2-16, 1830. — In this paper Dr. Buckland was associated 

 with Sir H. De la Beche, and the object was to describe the South- 

 ern Coast of England, from the Promontory of White Nore, eight 

 miles E.N.E. of the town of Weymouth, where Mr. Webster 

 ended his sections, to Weymouth and Portland, and thence west- 

 ward along the Chesil Bank to the cliffs west of Lyme Regis ; as 

 well as to illustrate the adjacent inland district, including all the 

 strata which lie between the great south escarpment of the chalk 

 downs and the sea ; or, as Dr. Buckland called it, the Weymouth di- 

 strict. The geological importance of this tract is strongly dwelt upon, 

 as it embraces the consideration of tertiary strata, chalk, greensand, 

 Purbeck and Portland beds, several other members of the oolite forma- 

 tion, and the lias, and thus permits the comparison of the south-western 

 boundary of these formations to be made with the north-eastern 

 boundary on the coast of Yorkshire, as well as with that portion of 

 them visible on the coast of Normandy, whilst it exhibits examples 



