ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT. XCl 



attaching their names to them when the generic names only have 

 been changed, as for example Stylocrinus scaler (Goldfuss) replaces 

 Platycrinus scaler (Goldfuss), — Itetzia ferita (Von Buch), Tere- 

 bratula ferita (Von Buch), — Retzia lepida (Goldfuss), Terebratula 

 lepida (Goldfuss), &c. ; and, on the whole, I think the only blame 

 to be laid to the charge of these most able men is that they have 

 not spared the reader the trouble of reading the synonyms in the 

 descriptions of species by enabling him to use the index alone. 



The next paper I purpose bringing under your notice, is that of 

 Dr. Wright, on the Palaeontology and Stratigraphical relation of the 

 Sands hitherto called Sands of the Inferior Oolite ; the object of the 

 author being to demonstrate that these sands ought, from their fossil 

 relations, to be attached to the lias, and not to the oolitic series of 

 deposits. Lithologically, the sandstones are represented as very 

 fine, brown and yellow, calcareous sands, often micaceous, and 

 containing within the lower part concretionary masses of coarse sand- 

 stone ; and in the upper, layers of siliceo-calcareous sandstone, whilst 

 the lowest beds of all become blue and marly, and pass insensibly 

 into the clay of the upper lias. 



As the sands themselves are not fossiliferous, though the nodules 

 sometimes lying near their base often contain organic remains. Dr. 

 Wright has made '' a bed of coarse brown marly limestone, full 

 of small, dark, ferruginous grains of hydrate of iron, imparting 

 an iron-shot aspect to this rock" the testing stratum for deter- 

 mining the true position of the supposed oolitic sands. This bed, 

 rich in Ammonites, Nautili, and Belemnites, and hence called the 

 "Ammonite and Belemnite Bed" by the Rev. Mr. Brodie, and 

 the " Cephalopoda Bed" by Dr. Wright, is compared by the latter 

 with the hard stone-marl of Germany described by Dr. Oppel of 

 Stuttgart, with the sandstone and supraliasic grit of the Moselle de- 

 scribed by M. Torquem, and with the beds described as upper lias 

 by many other foreign and British geologists ; inferring that, if 

 this identity be admitted, and the Cephalopoda-bed be considered 

 upper lias, the sands below it must necessarily be separated from 

 the oolitic, and classed with the liasic strata. 



This question manifestly depends, first, on the accurate deter- 

 mination of the organic remains on which it is made to rest. Dr. 

 Wright seems to have been careful in his investigations, and to 

 have adopted every precaution to guard against mistakes ; and se- 

 condly, on the correct determination of the position of the foreign 

 beds with which Dr. Wright places his Cephalopoda bed in com- 

 parison. In his table, showing the stratigraphical distribution of 

 the fossils enumerated in his several lists, occurs Ammo7iites jurensis 

 which is the cephalopod adopted by Oppel as characteristic of 

 the upper zone of his upper lias ; Dr. Oppel, however, points out 

 the great difference in opinion of many preceding writers, as to the 

 true position of this zone ; many having carried it up to the lower 

 boundary of the oolites, or even to the zone characterized by 

 the Posidonomya Bronni, stating, however, that his own opinion 

 concurs with that of Dr. Wright. When it is stated that of 



