ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT. ClU 



elementary and practical for his readers in the Colonies, he has not 

 forgotten that it should be at the same time sufficiently accurate and 

 original to do some service to general geology. Commencing with the 

 most recent formations, the author successively describes the different 

 formations of the Colony, giving, as to the most important feature, 

 a more than equal share of attention to the description of the Car- 

 boniferous System. It is a very remarkable feature, that in the 

 geology of Nova Scotia no formations occur between the drift and 

 the New Red Sandstone. The middle and lower Tertiaries, the Cre- 

 taceous and Oolitic Systems, with their subordinate groups, are all 

 wanting in this Colony, as in New Brunswick, Canada, and the 

 Northern United States. The work is accompanied by a good geolo- 

 gical map, and many illustrations on wood. 



The recent Arctic expeditions have also added considerably to our 

 knowledge of the geology of these extreme northern regions. A 

 paper read by Sir Edward Belcher in the Geological Section at the 

 recent meeting of the British Association at Glasgow, indicates the 

 presence of Ichthyosaurian bones in the most northern part of the 

 Arctic land. Mr. Salter, in a paper read on the same occasion, 

 showed the connexion of this fact with the presence of Ammonites 

 and other Lias shells on the north-western edges of Melville Island, 

 as already described by the Rev. Prof. S. Haughton. 



They are succeeded southwards in both cases by Carboniferous 

 limestones with several species identical with those of Great Britain, 

 thus giving us a marine equivalent for the coal-beds so long known 

 in that island. A trace of a Devonian formation then follows with 

 some characteristic fossils, Froductus and Atrypa reticularis, and 

 thence the whole surface of the Polar lands as far south as Hud- 

 son's Bay appears to be occupied by a grand plateau of Upper Si- 

 lurian rocks extending to the granitic ridge of the so-called Laurentian 

 chain. 



Mr. Salter also called attention to a similar basin in Spitzbergen 

 where Permian rocks have been recognized by De Koninck, suc- 

 ceeded southwards, in Bear Island, by strata of the Carboniferous age, 

 the fossils of which were described long ago by von Buch. 



An interesting account of the carboniferous fossils obtained by Sir 

 Edward Belcher and the officers under his command, prepared by 

 Mr. Salter, and of the Saurian bones by Prof. Owen, will be found in 

 the appendix to Sir E. Belcher's work entitled ' The last of the Arctic 

 Voyages.' 



We are indebted to Mr. Isbister for a valuable compilation of all 

 the information hitherto obtained respecting the geology of the 

 Hudson Bay Territories, and of portions of the Arctic and north- 

 western regions of America. This information has been partly 

 derived from his own observations, partly from those of the many 

 geologists and travellers who have explored, and of the naturalists 

 who have examined the organic remains of this portion of the 

 American continent. Mr. Isbister justly considers that, in the ab- 

 sence of any general view of the geological structure of this ex- 

 tensive but interesting region, even the most cursory classifica- 



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