AS-NIVERSARY ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT. 



Ixi 



This interesting discovery in Ireland affords additional confirma- 

 tion of the correctness of the theory which assumes that new forms of 

 animal life, either as species, as genera, or as classes, were created or 

 made their appearance on our earth at the time when the conditions 

 of life were best suited to their existence, and that they were formed 

 with an organization adapted to the external conditions under which 

 they were to live. When we analyze the great Carboniferous de- 

 posits, and recognize in them the vast tracts of ancient swamps and 

 marshes covered with the rich and luxuriant vegetation which they 

 formerly presented, subject to the gentle oscillation by which they 

 were alternately submerged beneath the ocean and slightly raised 

 above the level of its waters, we find, as in the great dismal swamps 

 in some of the Southern States of North America, the very conditions 

 of life most suitable for reptilian existence ; and precisely on this^ho- 

 rizon they appear to have come into existence not in one or two vague 

 forms developed out of previously existing ones, but, as it is now 

 shown, in a great variety of new forms, all belonging to the same 

 reptilian class, varying in different hemispheres, but presenting 

 those peculiar characteristics which constituted them the fit inhabi- 

 tants of low swampy regions, clothed with an abundant yet varied 

 vegetation. Future discoveries will, no doubt, in time add to the list 

 of genera and to our more perfect knowledge of the reptilian fauna 

 of the Carboniferous age. In the mean time we may congratulate 

 ourselves on this great addition to our knowledge of this fauna, for 

 which we are indebted to the zeal and acumen of Professor Huxley 

 and Dr. Wright. 



In the ^ Bulletin de la Societe Geologique de Prance'* will be 

 found an interesting account of the history of the discussion respect- 

 ing the Carboniferous formation of the Alps, by Prof. Alphonse Pavre, 

 of Geneva, in which he describes the progress of the discussion which 

 so long prevailed respecting the age of the anthraxiferous formation 

 of the Alps, in consequence of the apparent intermixture or alternation 

 of beds containing vegetable impressions, supposed to indicate a 

 Carboniferous period, with beds containing Belemnites, supposed to be 

 of Jurassic age. You all, no doubt, remember the numerous memoirs 

 published on this subject, and of which a very full account was given 

 by M. Scipion Gras in a former volume of the ' Bulletin.' 



M. Pavre has taken up the subject, and has carried on the history 

 to the latest times. He divides it into four periods. I need not 

 trouble you here with any notice of the first two ; and, with regard 

 to his third period, I will only observe, that it extends from 1858 to 

 1860, and contains an account of aU. the observations which tended to 

 prove the existence of the Triassic formation and of the Infralias, as 

 weU as the consequences which resulted from this discovery. He 

 shows that the existence of these two formations created such a 

 break between the Lias and the Coal-formation, that it was no longer 

 possible to admit that the beds in question could belong to the same 

 age. The Trias was even discovered at Petit Coeur, so that this 

 locality could no longer be claimed as a proof of the union of the 



^ 2me s^r. vol. xxii. p. 59. 



