ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT. XCVll 



travelling two years before with M. de Botella. The Spanish govern- 

 ment has on this occasion shown a most praiseworthy interest in the 

 progress of geological knowledge by confiding to M. de Botella the 

 task which he desired of constructing, during the next three years, a 

 detailed geological map of this same kingdom of Valencia, consisting 

 of the three provinces of which the capitals are Alicante, Valencia, 

 and Castellon de la Plana. Among other interesting statements 

 contained in this notice are the barometrical measurements of various 

 heights of mountain chains made by M. de Verneuil and published 

 in the Bulletin de la Soc. Geol. de France, vol. xi. p. 661 ; and after 

 alluding to different memoirs recently published on Spanish geology 

 in various scientific periodicals in Germany, France, and elsewhere, 

 the author states that the result of his own travels in Spain, during 

 the last six years, will appear on a small scale in the Geological Map 

 of Europe, about to be published by Sir R. Murchison and Mr. Nicol 

 in England, and by M. Dumont in Belgium. 



I can only briefly refer you to the 'Bulletin de la Soc. Geol.'* for 

 another interesting notice on Spanish geology by M. Casciano de Prado, 

 called, "On the Geology of Almaden and a part of the Sierra Morena, 

 and the Mountains of Toledo." The country is described as one of 

 great difficulty in consequence of the many and violent convulsions 

 to which it has been exposed in all geological periods, and it is also 

 intersected by many mountain chains. The lower Silurian beds are 

 greatly developed in the central portion of the country, in Estrema- 

 dura and the province of Toledo, and are overlaid by the Devonian. 

 Characteristic fossils are abundant in some places, as Calymene Tris- 

 tani, Orthis testudinar'ia, &c. 



Asia Minor. — The importance of a sufficient supply of coal to 

 enable them to carry on their naval and military operations in the 

 Turkish waters has been so much felt by our government, that, the 

 supplies from Heraclea not appearing sufficient, they despatched 

 Mr. Henry Poole, from this country, for the purpose of examining 

 some beds or seams of coal, the existence of which, near the Gulf of 

 Nicomedia, had been pointed out by the British Consul at Brusa. 

 Considering the physical geography of the country and the position 

 of the coal-beds of Heraclea with regard to the palaeozoic rocks of 

 Constantinople, and the cretaceous formations which occupy so large 

 an area in Asia Minor, I felt tolerably confident that the result of 

 Mr. Poole's examination of the country would in this respect be per- 

 fectly satisfactory. It appears, however, from the communications 

 which have been made to us by the Foreign Office and by Sir R. 

 Murchison, that Mr. Poole has not succeeded in finding any real 

 coal ; he describes the route he followed in his investigations, and 

 observes that in the different points to which his attention was 

 directed he. found nothing but lignite of a very inferior quality. 

 When we recollect, however, that coal has been discovered by M. de 

 Tchihatcheff in the eastern parts of Asia Minor, in the Taurus, and 

 in the neighbourhood of Erzeroumf, I do not feel disposed altogether 



* Vol. xii. p. 182. 



t Bull, de ia Soc. Geol. de France, vol. xi. p. 402, &c. 



