ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT. CXIU 



those whicli have perforated the Silurian sandstones of Douarnenez. 

 Whether it is the same species as the E. lividus (Lamk.) from the 

 Mediterranean, with which it has the greatest resemblance, remains 

 to be proved. 



I understand that when these or similar specimens were exhibited 

 before the Geological Society of France, a lively discussion took 

 place as to the cause of the hollows in which the Echini dwelt ; 

 whether the Echini had themselves made the cavities, or had only 

 crawled into cavities already made for them by other means. When 

 I was at Paris last summer, my attention was attracted by a fine spe- 

 cimen of granite rock, worn into numerous cavities, each containing 

 an Echinus, exhibited at the Palais de 1' Exposition. This was long 

 before the discussion at the Geological Society took place, and I can 

 only say that the decided impression on my mind was that the cavi- 

 ties in question were made by the animals themselves. It would be 

 impossible to explain, on any other supposition, the remarkable coin- 

 cidence between the size of the Echinus and the depression in which 

 it dwelt. This hollow, it should be observed, never exceeded, 

 even in the case of the largest, half an inch in depth. The Echini 

 were there of all ages, from half an inch to two inches in diameter, 

 and in every case the circumference of the depressions, crowded as 

 they were on one another, invariably coincided with the Echinus in 

 it. In some cases, when the cavities had been vacated, a new comer 

 had attached itself, not in the pre-existing cavity, as might have been 

 expected, but on the intervening border, and thence wearing down 

 the rock had caused a depression, intersecting both the neighbouring 

 hollows. 



A notice has reached me, announcing the intended publication of 

 a work entitled Etudes Geologiques, by M. Fauville of Perpignan. 

 Should the work thus announced ever see the light, it will contain 

 more novel doctrines and bolder statements than the most ingenious 

 or paradoxical Members of this Society are in the habit of putting 

 forth. Our greatest efforts will be small indeed by the side of the 

 ambitious doctrines of M. Fauville, who proposes to describe the 

 history of the earth from its first existence in a nebulous state, and 

 at an enormously greater distance from the sun than at present, 

 through the immense spiral course which it has described in space, 

 passing successively through the actual positions of Neptune, Uranus, 

 Saturn, Jupiter, Vesta, Juno, and Mars, to the moment of its final 

 volatilization in the immediate vicinity of the Sun, to which, in the 

 spiral course laid down for it by the author, it is gradually tending. 



Geological Maps. — I must not omit to call your attention to the 

 New Geological Map of Europe, by Sir R. Murchison and Professor 

 Nicol, which was exhibited and explained by one of the authors at 

 the recent Meeting of the British Association at Glasgow, and which 

 is now published. This map is in fact an extension to the whole of 

 Europe of that of Russia and the Ural, published by Sir R. Murchi- 

 son in 1846. It is on the same scale, and with the same colours to 

 designate the various formations. It gives us, for the first time, an 

 idea of the geology of Spain, for which we are mainly indebted to 



