Ixii PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



satisfaction to me to announce that the geological description of the 

 Isle of Wight by the late distinguished palaeontologist Edward Forbes 

 is about to appear as one of the Memoirs of the Survey. It will, I doubt 

 not, sustain his well-earned reputation : the task of editing and pre- 

 paring this work for publication has been undertaken by Mr. Godwin- 

 Austen, whose knowledge of the. ground, which he had often visited 

 in company with his lamented friend, renders him most competent to 

 carry out this labour of love. 



In addition to this work, a most instructive and valuable Decade on 

 the Echinoderms of the Oolitic rocks, compiled by Mr. Salter and 

 Mr. Woodward from the fragmentary notes of Edward Forbes, is also 

 about to appear*. 



It was with much regret that I was compelled last year to an- 

 nounce that the volume of the Palseontographical Society for 1854 

 had not then made its appearance, but I ventured to state from 

 what I knew of its forthcoming contents, that it would be found 

 fully to maintain the high reputation acquired by its predecessors. 

 The volume has since made its appearance, and I appeal to all who 

 have witnessed its goodly size and still more goodly contents, whether 

 my anticipations have not been fully realized. There is another 

 special merit in this volume which will not be lost sight of, viz. 

 that it contains the completing parts of several important works, 

 which will enable members to arrange them in a more convenient 

 manner for reference and use than that in which they are now 

 placed. In addition to the Permian Fossils by Prof. King, com- 

 pleted in a former volume, we have now the following works com- 

 pleted : ' The Fossil Cirripedia of Great Britain,' by Mr. Darwin, 

 in two parts ; the first volume of ' The Fossil Brachiopoda of Great 

 Britain,' by Mr. Davidson ; *The Mollusca of the Great Oolite,' by 

 Messrs. Morris and Lycett ; and * The Fossil Corals of Great Bri- 

 tain,' by Messrs. Milne-Edwards and Jules Haime. Besides these, 

 this volume contains the second part of the * Fossil Reptilia of the 

 Wealden Formations,' by Prof. Owen; the second part of 'The 

 Fossil Remains of Mollusca found in the Chalk of England,' by Mr. 

 Sharpe ; and the third part of ' The Eocene Mollusca of England,' 

 by Mr. F. Edwards. 



In his Address from this chair in 1854, Prof. E. Forbes pointed 

 out the great importance to the geological student of the publi- 

 cation of the interesting monographs of this Society ; I therefore 

 trust that it will not be inopportune to give a slight account of the 

 contents of this volume. 



Mr. Davidson's portion of this volume completes his essay on 

 the Brachiopoda of the Cretaceous formations. It also contains 

 the completion of the genus Terebratula, the number of species 

 of which is extended to thirty-three, although the two last are given, 

 apparently without sufficient explanation, as Waldheimia, the names 

 in the text and in the list of plates not corresponding. This is 



* The decade has been published while these sheets are passing through the 

 press, but I will not trespass on the manor of my successor in the chair by alluding 

 any further to its great merits. 



