220 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



Antiqua Sivalensis,' and consists of twelve folio plates, and sixty- 

 four pages of 8vo letter-press. Nothing has ever appeared in 

 lithography in this country at all comparable to these plates ; and as 

 regards the representations of minute osseous texture by Mr. Ford, 

 they are perhaps the most perfect that have yet been produced in 

 any country. 



The work has commenced v/ith the Elephant grOup, in which, they 

 say, " is most signally displayed the numerical richness of forms 

 which characterizes the Fossil Fauna of India," and the first chapter 

 relates to the Proboscidea — Elephant and Mastodon. The au- 

 thors have not restricted themselves to a description of the Sewalik. 

 fossil forms, but they propose to trace the affinities, and institute an 

 arrangement of all the well-determined species in the family. They 

 give a brief historical sketch of the leading opinions which have 

 been entertained by palaeontologists respecting the relations of the 

 Mastodon and the Elepiiant to each other, and of the successive 

 steps in the discovery of new forms which have led to the modifi- 

 cations of these opinions. They state that the results to which they 

 themselves have been conducted, lead them to differ on certain 

 points from the opinions most commonly entertained at the present 

 day respecting the fossil species of Elephant and Mastodon. As 

 they differ in their conclusions from those of Cuvier, De Blainville 

 and Owen as to specific differences, you will readily conclude that 

 the proof they adduce rests upon nice distinctions in anatomical 

 structure ; to enter upon which would be quite unsuitable on the 

 present occasion, by even the most competent to judge of questions 

 in which such high authorities disagree. 



Conclusion. 



Although this Address has extended to so great a length, those 

 who are actively alive to what is going on in the several departments 

 of Geology will have found many important works of the past year 

 unnoticed, many topics of interest left untouched. This would not 

 have been the case to so great an extent, if I had had more time at 

 my disposal. Even with the opportunities I have had, I might have 

 briefly noticed a greater number of books published in our own and 

 in foreign countries, and memoirs contained in Journals and Trans- 

 actions ; but I confess to yielding to an inclination to dwell upon 

 topics that have more particularly attracted me in my past geological 

 studies. 



It is highly gratifying to see so much activity in the cultivation of 

 our science in almost every part of the civilized world ; and still more 

 satisfactory to observe, that it has been for some time past pursued 

 in a better spirit, with a disposition to greater accuracy and rigour in 

 investigation, and with a more strict adherence to the rules of philo- 

 sophical inquiry. When we contrast the state of Geology now with 

 what it was wYiqh this Society was established, or compare the then 

 limited extent of our knowledge of Palaeontology with the wide range 

 it now takes, and when we think of the crude hypotheses and hasty 



