﻿"Vol. 64.] ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS OP THE PRESIDENT. Ixxvii 



The gradual recoguition of detached areas of pre-Cambrian rocks, 

 which rise up from amidst the Palaeozoic and Mesozoic formations of 

 England and Wales, has been recorded in successive volumes of our 

 Quarterly Journal. The papers on this part of the subject began 

 with the memorable contribution of Holl on the Malvern Hills, 

 which appeared in 1864.^ Prof. Bonney and the Eev. E. Hill 

 subsequently described the interesting core of Charnwood Forest, 

 with its remarkable volcanic series.^ Dr. Callaway made known 

 other pre-Cambrian masses of various ages in the Malverji Hills, 

 Shropshire, and Anglesey.^ Unfortunately, these various inliers of 

 the most ancient parts of the framework of the country are so 

 extensively buried under much younger sedimentary accumulations 

 that their relations to each other, and their stratigraphical position 

 in the pre-Cambrian series of rocks, are still unknown. Is it too 

 much to hope that some petrographical method may yet be devised 

 which may help to clear away these obscurities, and that a 

 future number of the Quarterly Journal may earn the distinction 

 of making the discovery known to the world ? 



The subdivisions and sequence of the older Palaeozoic rocks of 

 Britain were first worked out by two of the most illustrious 

 Fellows of this Society, but the record of their observations and 

 conclusions is only partially preserved in its publications. The 

 story of their labours, which resulted in laying the foundations of 

 the Palaeozoic geology of the whole globe, has, in large measure, 

 to be gleaned from various outside sources. Sedgwick, indeed, 

 contributed to the Transactions, Proceedings, and early volumes of 

 the Quarterly Journal a number of important papers on the rocks 

 of the Lake District and of North "Wales, which reveal some of the 

 stages in the progress of his researches. But he never completed a 

 connected narrative of what he had done in the field, and the 

 historian who would follow the footsteps of the Woodwardian 

 Professor, and do justice to his large and luminous views regarding 

 the older formations of this country, must trace them through many 

 scattered papers in various journals. Murchison was less com- 

 municative of his progress to the Geological Society. He reserved 

 the account of his labours for the chapters of his great ' Silurian 

 System.' 



1 Q. J. XX, 413 & xxi (1865) 72. 



2 Q. J. xxxiii (1877) 754 ; xxxiv (1878) 199 ; xxxvi (1880) 337; xlvii (1891) 78. 

 ' Q. J. XXXV (1879) 643 ; xxxvi (1880) 536; xxxvii (1881) 210 ; xxxviii (1882) 



119; xl (1884) 567. 



