﻿Yol. 64.] ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS OE THE PRESIDENT. Ixxxiii 



already expressed, that much of the so-called ' Permian ' rocks 

 should be regarded as really reddened Coal-measures with Spirorhis- 

 limestone.^ Mr. Walcot Gibson also, in a later communication, 

 drew a similar couclusion in regard to the district of Staffordshire, 

 Denbighshire, and JN'ottinghamshire.^ 



Although the Carboniferous flora and fauna of these islands have 

 long been the subject of careful study, it is not many years since 

 the principle of stratigraphical subdivision into life-zones was 

 applied to them. Dr. Kidston has in this country led the way 

 in the zonal treatment of the plants. The late J. W. Kirkby, 

 Dr. Marr, Prof. Garwood, Dr. Wheelton Hind, and others have 

 done good service in making similar use of the invertebrate fauna. 

 It is singular, however, that in the case of a thick calcareous 

 formation, so crowded with organisms as our Carboniferous 

 Limestone, such slow progress should have been made in deter- 

 mining the vertical range of the fossils and turning them to use 

 as indications of stratigraphical position and sequence. After the 

 good preliminary work by the late G. H. Morton in Elintshire 

 and Denbighshire, the most important step in this direction has 

 recently been taken by Dr. Arthur Yaughan in his paper on ' The 

 Palaeontological Sequence in the Carboniferous Limestone of the 

 Bristol Area,' which was read to the Society in the summer of 

 1904.^ The biological succession observed by him has also been 

 applied by Mr. Sibly to the Mendip area and Derbyshire,* and we 

 may hope that it will be found to be likewise available in the thick 

 Mountain-Limestone Series of Ireland, where a beginning has been 

 made by Dr. Matley,^ and among the marine bands in the corre- 

 sponding group of strata in Scotland. 



Of all the papers which the Society has published dealing with 

 the Carboniferous rocks of this country, none seems to me so instinct 

 with scientific genius as that by Godwin-Austen, ' On the possible 

 Extension of the Coal-Measures beneath the South-Eastern Part of 

 England.' It was read on May 30th, 1855, and appeared in the 

 twelfth volume of the Quarterly Journal. For its wide and detailed 

 acquaintance with the facts observable on the two sides of the 

 Channel, its careful and logical presentation of the evidence, and 

 its cautious yet convincing indication of the conclusions to be 

 drawn, it must ever rank as one of the masterpieces of English 



1 Q. J. H (1895) 528. ^ q^ j^ ^^^ (^gQ^^ 251. » q_ j^ i^i (1905) 181. 

 * Q. J. Ixi (1905) 548; Ixii (1906) 324; Ixiv (1908) 34. 

 ' Q. J. Ixii (1906) 275. 



