ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT. CXXV 



Notices of the gold of Assam, and of the province of Martaban 

 in Burmah, conclude these memoirs : proceeding, as in every other 

 case, from some one of the metamorphic class of rocks, the gold is 

 obtained as usual by washing, and it does not appear that the yield 

 is sufficient to pay more than a moderate return for the labour. The 

 Assam auriferous deposits are described by Captain E. T. Dalton and 

 Lieut. -Col. J. F. Hannay. 



I shall now briefly notice a work on the Coal-formation of Saxony, 

 by Prof. Hanns Bruno Geinitz, the first part of which (Geognost. 

 Darstellung, &c.) has been published under the authority of the Mini- 

 ster of the Interior of that kingdom. It appears in a folio form, and 

 is illustrated by twelve large plates, exhibiting the position of all the 

 existing shafts, the number of seams, and all the accidents of the 

 strata, whether due to faults or the intrusion of igneous rocks ; the 

 size being very well fitted for the illustrations, but inconvenient for 

 perusal. The author, whilst enforcing the advantage of affording new 

 means of industry to the inhabitants, by pointing out the extension of 

 the coal-formation in Saxony, on the great principle that the material 

 wants of a population must be satisfied before any great progress can 

 be made in supplying intellectual wants, wisely adds, that hopes of an 

 inexhaustible supply of this precious fuel must not be indulged in. 

 The work commences with a general review of the formations in 

 which coaly matter has been found, commencing with turf, re- 

 specting which he observes, that, as the remains of the Giant Deer, 

 Cervus eurycerosy of the Giant Buffalo, Bos priscus, and of the 

 Mammoth, Elephas jprimigeniiis, have been found in such bogs, it 

 must be assumed that these animals had either died in the historic 

 period during which the alluvium had been deposited, or that the 

 commencement of the growth of the bog must be placed in a period 

 antecedent to the present epoch. The next is the Tertiary or brown 

 coal, some varieties of which approximate so closely to true coal as 

 to have been called Pitch-coal, all organic structure having dis- 

 appeared. An interesting variety is the Paper- coal of Rott, near 

 Bonn, and of Erpel on the Rhine ; it is rich in the remains of fresh- 

 water fish, namely, Leuciscus papyraceus (Bronn), and of Frogs, 

 the finest examples of which, to be seen in the Museum of Dresden, 

 have been described by Giebel as Palceophrygnos grandipes. AVhen 

 this coal is burnt, the ashes are rich in infusorial remains. 



In the cretaceous formation at the base of the Upper Quader at 

 Pima, a coal-deposit occurs, as also west of Dresden at Erligt, and in 

 other places down to the lowest beds of the Lower Quader. These 

 deposits, rich in leaves and other remains of plants, are not universal 

 through the Quader ; and, where they occur in the midst of a marine 

 formation, they manifestly indicate the points where rivers once 

 flowed into the Quader Sea. 



The Wealden, Jura, Lias, and Alpine coal are next considered. 

 Sometimes the Wealden coal is very rich in carbon, and it has yielded 

 a supply of excellent coke to the Hanover and Minden, the Berlin 

 and Magdeburg, and the Magdeburg and Halberstadt Railways. As 

 localities of the Jura and Lias coal, Boll in Wurtemburg, Seefeld in the 



