XXVUl PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



occupy Wales and cover so large a space of England and Ireland, 

 as valuable data to the miner, farmer, merchant, and engineer, — 

 to us these maps have the value of contributions toward the ancient 

 hydrography of the world, the ancient lines of violent earth-shakings, 

 the ancient boundaries of life. And, thankful as we are to the per- 

 severing energy of the Palgeontographical Society for some of the 

 noblest monographs of organic remains which have ever appeared, 

 to us these great works are but precious data toward the history 

 of life and the changes of life, in the long series of geological time, 

 and the long series of physical changes. These changes again grow 

 under examination into a new and great field of research — passing 

 beyond observation at the surface of the earth, to reasonings on the 

 condition of its interior masses — to investigations of the reaction of 

 these on the surface, and their effects in the eruptions of melted 

 rocks, the metamorphism of strata, and the production of mineral 

 veins. 



It is not to be supposed that aU these trains of inquiry are to be 

 equally exemplified in the contributions to our Society in the course 

 of one official year : such equality is not desirable ; it might be 

 associated with indifference. 



From the large mass of subjects thus noticed as deserving the 

 attention of geologists, observers in the British Isles, following the 

 instinct of the inductive philosophy, have commonly selected for 

 serious work those which promise to yield positive laws, however 

 limited, as bases for theoiy and guides for practical operations. 

 Why do we engage so earnestly in the preparation and verification 

 of geological maps and sections, if it is not because these are on the 

 one hand the trustworthy data for marking out the ancient boundaries 

 of land and sea, and on the other the surest means of advancing 

 mining, architecture, agriculture, and many useful arts ? 



In England, rich in organic remains, and in many natural exhi- 

 bitions of the whole series of fossiliferous strata, the main tendency 

 of geological exertion has for some years been in the direction of 

 palseontology. To form complete and critical catalogues of British 

 fossils, — to determine for each species its law of distribution in geo- 

 graphical space and geological time, and its dependence on physical 

 conditions, has been found worthy of the long and serious labours of 

 our BeU, Bigsby, Bowerbank, Bunbiuy, Darwin, Davidson, Egerton, 

 Forbes, Falconer, Fitton, Hooker, Huxley, Jones, Lonsdale, Morris, 

 Owen, Prestwich, Salter, "Woodward, and Wright. By them, not 

 only our own proceedings have been enriched, but we are able to 

 point with satisfaction to separate works of eminent usefulness 

 and merit, and whole volumes of precious monographs published 

 by the Palaeontographieal Society. 



As an example of the good effect of the union of these branches 

 of geological study, I would instance the late republication of the 

 great work on * Siluria' by Sir Roderick Murchison; for here we 

 have, consolidated under the contemplation of one mind, and that 

 the most fitted for the task, the whole series of palaeozoic history, 

 and a great part of the evidences clearly digested and perfectly 



