Xl PEOCEEDINGS OP THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



Prof. Sedgwick and Sir Eoderick Murchison ; Dr. Porchhammer of 

 Copenhagen, born at Ilusum in 1794 (he was President of the 

 Polytechnicum in Copenhagen, and died on the 14thDeeember,1863); 

 and Dr. Oppel of Munich, who was elected a Foreign Correspondent 

 only two years ago : he was a Member of the Academy of Sciences, 

 and Conservator of the Palseontological Museum of Munich ; he died 

 on the 23rd of December, 1865. 



I shall now proceed to lay before j'ou some account of the progress 

 of our science during the past year, and of the principal works which 

 have been published at home and abroad bearing in any way upon 

 the advance of geological knowledge. But here, at the very outset 

 of my task, I find it necessary to claim your indulgence. Were I to 

 allude, however briefly, to every work and every memoir to be found 

 in the many scientific publications of Europe and America, every one 

 of which contains new and interesting matter, you would only have 

 to listen to a dry and uninteresting catalogue. I have therefore been 

 compelled to make a selection of such as appeared to me most inter- 

 esting or important ; and here it is that I must claim your indul- 

 gence, if I have failed in the due appreciation of their relative 

 merits. I cannot but fear that I may have overlooked many works 

 of great value, while I may possibly have given undue attention to 

 others less deserving of such notice. I will only add that I have en- 

 deavoured, as far as possible, to arrange the different notices accord- 

 ing to geological chronology, beginning Avith the oldest formations. 



I must, however, preface my remarks with an account of some of 

 the Geological Surveys which have been carried on in different parts 

 of the world. 



Geological Survey of the United Kingdom. 



I learn from Sir Eoderick Murchison that, with respect to 

 England, the progress made by the Geological Survey under Prof. 

 Eamsay chiefly relates to the south-eastern and northern counties, 

 483 square miles having been surveyed in the former, and 510 in the 

 latter. In Scotland 332 square miles have been siuweyed; for the most 

 part in the Carboniferous strata, and in that highly metamorphosed 

 and difiicult ground occupied by Old Eed Sandstone and Silurian, 

 south of Ayr and DalmeUington. These areas, with tracts of minor 

 extent in detached parts of England, make a total of 1500 square 

 miles for Great Britain. 



The publication of the maps relating to the geology of England 

 has necessarily been, delayed by the insertion in the old copper-plates 

 of the lines of railroad and other additions, which the public have 

 called for. The sanction of the Treasury having at length been 

 obtained, Sir Henry James is now occupied in improving the topo- 

 graphy of the electrotype-plates for the Geological Survey, and in- 

 serting thereon the lines of all railways and the degrees of latitude 

 and longitude. 



