XXX PEOCEEDrSTGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



inorphic rocks, its vast fields of trap, its detached fragments of 

 mesozoic strata, its successive stages of glacial emergence and de- 

 pression, and tlie singularities of its palaeozoic fauna. Judging from 

 the contributions made to the Society in the last year by Mr. Moore*, 

 Mr. Brownf, Mr. Jamesonj, Mr. Miller§, and to the British Asso- 

 ciation, at their Leeds Meeting, by Mr. Page and Dr. Anderson ||, 

 there is no reason for doubting that these questions will all in due 

 time be fully and accurately answered. 



Thanks to the continued labours of the Geological Survey, the 

 great map of England and Wales by W. Smith, now nearly half a 

 century old, followed by those of Greenough, Griffith, and Maccul- 

 loch, has been expanded into a magnificent national Avork, akeady 

 spreading its branches into our colonies of Canada and Australia, 

 and our Indian possessions in the East and the West. In this 

 labour we are only proceeding jp«ri passu with other European and 

 Transatlantic Powers ; so that, wherever civilization spreads the arts 

 of life and the studies which dignify humanity, this the funda- 

 mental work of geology is steadily and carefully prosecuted — " Quce 

 regio in terris nostri non plena laboris ?" 



Nearly twenty years have passed since the map which Mr. 

 Greenough bequeathed to the Society was published in its amended 

 form. In the interval, some changes have occurred in the general 

 classification of strata, and many improvements have become requi- 

 site in the details of the map. 



The Council has entrusted to a Committee the task of renewing it. 

 In this undertaking, the intention of the author to make it a record 

 of the state of geological smwey in England and Wales has been 

 kept in view. The results of the great Smwey which has now been 

 in progress for upwards of twenty years have been taken as the 

 basis, and, as well as could be ^one, on a scale so much reduced, 

 have been transferred to our map. Thus the two sheets now placed 

 for inspection were nearly filled, and the small space left uncom- 

 pleted in one of them near Manchester has been coloured by Mr. 

 Binney. The work of the National Survey goes bej^ond these sheets ; 

 and the Committee has taken measures to obtain approximate cor- 

 rections of the whole of the remaining area, by requesting from 

 individual members of the Society to be favoured with the valuable 

 aid of their personal, often as yet unpublished knowledge. 



A geological map in sufficient detail is a severe test of the actual 

 state of our science. It requires positive determinations — ^not pro- 

 bable views — fixed classifications of strata — exact limitations of the 

 old sea-deposits — of the old areas of vertical displacement — of the 

 effect of metaniorj)hic action. It will be long before even the best 

 and greatest of our maps can fiilfil all the purposes of the miner, 

 the fa,rmer, the engineer ; but they are already in such a state pf 



'"" On the Silurian Eocks of Ayrshire. 



t Section of the Coast of Fife. 



\ On a Lias Outlier near Banff. 



§ On the Eocks of the Northern Highlands. 



II Reports of the British Assooi^tioji, 3,8^., 



