ANNIVEESAHY ADDEESS OP THE PEESIDENT. 



xU 



In Ireland, Mr. Jukes reports that 1037 square miles have been 

 surveyed, and that four new sheets have been issued, making the 

 total number that have been published 102. 



On what may be viewed as an important new feature in classifica- 

 tion, it will interest geologists to know that, in considerable tracts, 

 extending over large parts of Somersetshire and Gloucestershire, the 

 lihsetic or Penarth beds are being elaborately laid down by Mr. 

 Bristow ; whilst, as is well known to the Society, Mr. Dawkins and 

 Mr. Etheridge have completed sections which accurately define the 

 contents and succession of the fossil remains in this peculiar deposit. 



Amongst the memoirs published by the Geological Survey, none 

 perhaps will be found more useful than the ' Catalogue of the Collec- 

 tion of fossils in the Museum of Practical Geology,' by Professor Hux- 

 ley and Mr. Etheridge, published during the past year, with an 

 explanatory introduction by Prof. Huxley. I would gladly have 

 given some account of this most interesting preface, containing a 

 clear exposition of some principles of natural history, as well as the 

 application of natural history to the study and elucidation of fossils, 

 or palaeontology ; but to do justice to such a subject it would be 

 necessary to quote almost every line of every page. Such a proceed- 

 ing would be impossible ; it would also, I trust, be unnecessary, for 

 the book itself must find its way into the hands of every British 

 geologist at least. I must therefore content myself with recom- 

 mending it to your special notice, not only on account of the matter 

 it contains, but for its close and logical reasoning, and the pleasing 

 style in which it is written. 



Geological Survey of Canada. 



As the Geological Survey of Canada progresses, under the direction 

 of Sir "W. E. Logan, the exertions of the surveyors have been re- 

 warded by the discovery of many new forms of animal life. These 

 have been described and published from time to time by Mr. 

 Billings, the palaeontologist to the Survey. The volume for 1865, 

 now before me, contains amongst other matter several articles on the 

 discovery of these fossils, viz. new species of fossils from the lime- 

 stones of the Quebec group, from Point Levis and other localities in 

 Canada East. Amongst the new fossils here described is a new 

 Orthis, a new genus called €lisosj)ira, Ophileta 2 species, Mur- 

 chisonia 3 sp,, Pleurotomaria 1 sp., Cyrtoceras 4 sp., Dikelocephalus 

 7 sp., Olenus 1 sp., Bathyurus 3 sp., and Cheirurus 1 sp. The next 

 article is on new species of fossils from the Quebec group in the 

 northern part of Newfoundland. The north-western coast of New- 

 foundland, from Cape Norman to Bonne Bay, on the Gulf of the St. 

 Lawrence, a distance of about 180 miles, is composed altogether of 

 Lower Silurian limestones, slates, quartzites, and sandstones. The 

 width of this belt of Silurian rocks is from five to ten miles. The 

 fossils show that these rocks belong to the Potsdam and Quebec 

 groups, the former having a thickness of about 2000 feet, while the 

 Quebec group is about 6600 feet in thickness. 



The author gives a table of the different members of this series of 



