ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT. CXXXV 



flints and fragments of quartz, the gravel of the country ; trunks of 

 trees, probably the birch and oak, and oak-posts, shaped, pointed, 

 and standing erect, were also found. Mr. Bunbury concludes from 

 the state of the moss, that aquatic mosses are not rapidly destroyed 

 by moisture, and that the want of mosses in former geological periods 

 must be explained upon some other principle. The moss-bed is 

 presumed to have been formed at least some centuries ago. 



An analysis, by Dr. Richardson and Mr. Browell, of mineral waters 

 brought from the borders of Persia by Mr. W. K. Loftus, proved that 

 these waters are more or less rich in carbonate of soda. A notice by 

 Mr. J. "Wolley of an ice-carried boulder at Borgholm, 1 feet long, 

 7 broad, and 6 thick, affords an interesting recent example of the 

 transporting action of coast-ice. Mr. Cleghorn contributed a paper 

 on the origin of the potholes which are observed on the surface of 

 the granitic rocks of Cornwall, now raised many hundred feet above 

 the sea-level, and which are ascribed by him to the former action of 

 the sea, when beating upon them as part of the coast ; other writers 

 have considered them as one of the results of glacial action ; either ex- 

 planation being perhaps preferable to the more ancient one, which sup- 

 posed them all to have been formed by the agency of man. A sketch 

 of the geology of Trinidad was given by Mr. H. G. Bowen. In the 

 north, unfossiliferous slates, flagstones, and limestones occur; and some 

 of the ochreous quartz-veins are slightly auriferous. Allm-ial beds, 60 

 feet thick, are extensive in this district. In the south, sandstones, 

 variegated sands, lignitiferous clays (sometimes jasperized), and the 

 Moruga limestone form the base ; blue and brown clays with bitumen, 

 comprising the pitch lakes, salt and alum springs, &c. succeed ; then 

 a modern marine sand formation, from 50 to 100 feet thick ; and 

 lastly alluvial deposits, seldom more than 30 feet thick. 



Mr. H. J. Moyle, through Consul-general Hillier, forwarded a 

 notice of the occurrence in Siam of various metalliferous ores, prin- 

 cipally cupreous ; this being another contribution from the Foreign 

 Office. The Rev. W. B. Clarke has furnished a note on volcanic 

 bombs in the alluvial drift of Victoria and Tasmania. 



Mr. Morris announced the discovery of AUophane at Charlton, 

 Kent, in the fissures of the chalk ; a substance, which occurs under 

 similar conditions in the chalk of Beauvais in France, and in other rocks 

 in Thuringia and Saxony. Mr. Morris suggests that the hydrated 

 silicate of alumina may have been formed by the filtration of atmo- 

 spheric waters through the superficial deposits. In the case of sta- 

 lactitic hydrates, the decomposition of the minerals of the rocks puts 

 their elementary constituents in a fit condition to be thus carried away 

 by water ; and it is not improbable that such decomposition may be 

 still proceeding in certain clay and sand deposits, with similai 

 results. 



It has been frequently remarked, as a source of regret, that small 

 isolated papers, such as the preceding, should now form so large a 

 proportion of our contributions, long papers embracing a large ex- 

 tent of countrj^ being comparatively rare ; but I think this complaint 

 is unreasonable, as we can scarcely expect that long papers should 



