ii ANNIVERSARY MEETING. 



office in this Society during the course of last year. The Council, 

 in considering the arrangements to be made in filling up Mr. Wood- 

 ward's place, and the necessity of obtaining the services of an effi-^ 

 cient officer, resolved that a different distribution of the duties of 

 the Vice-Secretary was desirable. 



At the same time other changes were required in the manner in 

 which the Journal was to be conducted, in consequence of which 

 the Council resolved that the Vice- Secretary should be relieved 

 from all superintendence of the Library and Museum, and that his 

 duties at the Society should be confined, at a reduced salary, to the 

 care of all papers communicated to the Society, and to editing the 

 Transactions and Journal. 



The Council have the satisfaction of stating that they have secured 

 the services of Mr. J. De C. Sowerby as Curator and Librarian. 

 Mr. Sowerby's attainments and skill in fossil conchology are too 

 well known to require any remarks on this occasion ; the appoint- 

 ment was subsequently confirmed by the General Meeting, to whom, 

 in conformity with the bye-laws, it was submitted ; and the Council 

 look forward to seeing the Museum and Collections shortly rendered, 

 through his labours, more available to the Fellows of the Society. 



It was stated in the Annual Report of last year that an agreement 

 had been made with Messrs. Longman and Co. for the regular pub- 

 lication of the Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society. This 

 agreement was made for one year, renewable at the expiration of 

 that period. At the end of the year however Messrs. Longman and 

 Co. gave notice that they declined to continue the arrangement any 

 longer, or to run any further risk. The Council, after full consi- 

 deration, and being satisfied that under existing circumstances the 

 Journal is the most advantageous form in which a large proportion 

 of the papers read at the meetings can be published, determined to 

 continue it on the Society's account for the ensuing year, the Vice- 

 Secretary remaining the editor, under the superintendence of the 

 President and Secretaries. A letter has been addressed by the Se- 

 cretary to the Fellows, stating all particulars respecting the Journal, 

 and also explaining the reasons why they have considered it expe- 

 dient for the future, or at least during such period as the present 

 form of an illustrated Journal shall be kept up, to discontinue the 

 gratuitous distribution of these illustrated Proceedings to the Fel- 

 lows, and not to publish them otherwise than in the Journal. 



During the last year the seventh volume of the Transactions has 

 been commenced, and that form of publication will be continued for 

 those papers requiring illustration which cannot be adequately 

 given in an octavo form. The Council have been induced to try the 

 plan adopted by some Foreign Societies, of publishing the papers 

 separately, each memoir constituting a part, which when there is a 

 sufficient number will form a volume, and for which a title-page and 

 index will be printed. The funds disposable for this purpose did 

 not allow of more than one part being published at the Society's 

 expense ; but Mr. Warburton and Mr. Greenough, feeling the im* 

 portance of an early publication of the discovery by Mr. Bain, with 



