ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT. XCV 



great herbivorous animal. This gradual change of the blue marls 

 into sandy beds probably indicates the period of the gradual rising 

 of the country and the increasing shallowness of the water near the 

 coast, when the arenaceous particles brought down by the rivers were 

 deposited near the coast line, whilst the lighter argillaceous sediment 

 was carried to a greater distance ; it may perhaps be laid down as a 

 general geological axiom that a change from argillaceous into arena- 

 ceous deposits is an indication of the gradual elevation of a sea-bottom 

 at no great distance from the coast. 



The author then proceeds to describe the beds of the quaternary 

 period, which form a littoral band fringing the marine deposits which 

 they overlie unconformably, containing the remains of Elephants, 

 Rhinoceros, Equus, Cervus, and other large ruminants which have 

 been collected near Imola, where was the delta formed by the ancient 

 course of the river Santerno. 



An account of the formation of the modern period, which consists 

 of the plain of Ravenna, is reserved for a subsequent communication. 



Connected with the tertiary remains of the Mediterranean basin, I 

 would not willingly omit a reference to Dr. Wright's paper, on 

 Fossil Echinoderms from the island of Malta, published in the 15th 

 volume of the " Annals and Magazine of Natural History." These 

 fossils and the details of their stratigraphical arrangement were prin- 

 cipally procured by Lord Ducie, to whom Dr. Wright was indebted 

 for much valuable information. The strata are divided into five 

 groups, each with its characteristic fossils. These are in descending 

 order: 1. Coralline limestone; 2. Yellow sand; 3. Clay; 4. Calca- 

 reous sandstone ; 5. Hard cherty limestone. It is hardly necessary 

 to add that they all belong to the miocene epoch. 



Spain. — Let me now direct your attention for a short period to 

 that peninsula which was for so many years the seat of our military 

 exploits ; here we shall find that the germ of geological science 

 observed some years ago, and detected in the works of Spanish 

 engineers in the Mining Review of that country, appears now to be 

 actively taking root, and to hold out the expectation that before 

 many years shall have elapsed, we may hope to see the geology of 

 Spain, hitherto chiefly explored by foreigners, thoroughly worked 

 out by the new school of Spanish geologists. We are indebted to 

 our old acquaintance and friend M. de Verneuil for a short but 

 interesting notice on the progress of geology in Spain during the last 

 few years, and principally during the year 1854. From this and 

 other sources I shall endeavour briefly to lay before you some of the 

 principal results of this new field of energy in geological research. 



The first impetus to this new movement was given by the foun- 

 dation of a school of mines at Madrid about twenty years ago. In 

 1847 an academy of sciences was created, and shortly afterwards a 

 commission was appointed by the Spanish government to construct 

 a geographical and geological map of the Province of Madrid. It is 

 to M. Casciano de Prado, Vice-President of this Commission, that 

 we are principally indebted for the more important geological dis- 

 coveries recently made in that country. With the aid of MM. 



