ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT. CXI 



Dr. De la Harpe does not attempt to carry out fully the floral 

 correlation of these deposits with those of the world at large, as he 

 frankly admits the imperfection of the data for such a purpose, 

 though he brings forward strong evidence for supporting his opinion, 

 that the Austrian deposits are really Miocene, and should not there- 

 fore be allowed to embarrass calculations fouuded upon more certain 

 Eocene data. 



The East India Company has lately exhibited a great anxiety to 

 advance Geological Science, and, by the estabhshment in India of a 

 Museum of Economic Geology, has shown that it is not blind to 

 the great national advantage of possessing such an establishment. 

 The first regular report which has reached this country and has 

 been drawn up by Mr. Oldham, who presides over the Geolo- 

 gical Survey, is on the Irrawaddy River, and embraces a distance 

 of eighty miles, extending to Ava through Prome. Along the 

 river nothing but tertiaries occur — the strike corresponding to the 

 river channel ; clay, shales, and sandstones forming an Eocene de- 

 posit, as determined by the Prome fossils brought home by Crawford 

 and "Wallich. Over these, unconformably deposited, is a more recent 

 deposit, supposed, from the similarity of the fossils in some cases, and 

 the identity in others, to be in a parallel with the Sevalic group 

 of India. Mr. Oldham provisionally considers them Miocene. A 

 coal-deposit exists in the Eocene beds, with a north and south 

 strike, being about the same as the average direction of the igneous 

 rocks, which form, as it were, two uplifting belts, one on each side of 

 the river. A vast alluvial tract is also exhibited on the east bank 

 of the river in the lower portion of the district described, the tertiaries 

 occupying patches on the west bank. This survey was directed 

 principally to the examination of the coal, and is therefore not illus- 

 trated as to the fossils, though it is in respect to physical features. 



Capt. Spratt has communicated during the Session, a paper on the 

 Geology of Varna and the neighbouring parts of Bulgaria. This 

 district he divides into two formations : the lower fully 1000 feet 

 thick in some localities, and consisting of yellowish and grey cal- 

 careous sandstone and sandy marls, with an occasional interstra- 

 tified oolitic bed, he considers Eocene ; and the upper, which is un- 

 conformable to the lower on which it rests, consists of red sand and 

 marls, seldom more than 100 or 200 feet thick, though at Cape 

 Aspro, fifteen miles south of Varna, it attains a thickness of fully 

 1000 feet. 



The lower or Eocene formation is of marine origin, contains many 

 fossils, and at the upper part of the Lake Allahdyn an abundance of 

 Nummulites, none of which have been found near Varna. In the 

 list of fossils drawn up by Mr. J. Morris and Mr. Rupert Jones, 

 two species are named, \'iz. Nummulina distans and i\^. granulosa ; 

 and, as Capt. Spratt mentions that the more durable calcareous 

 stratum is usually the uppermost bed, is only about 25 or 30 feet 

 thick, is charged with Nummulites, and is underlaid by arenaceous 

 marls and sandstones fully, as at Devno, 1 000 i^^t thick, it appears 



