ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT. Ixv 



I must also notice the work of Dr. Ferdinand Stoliczka, entitled 

 * A Revision of the Gasteropoda of the Gosau beds in the Eastern 

 Alps.' This memoir was written in Calcutta, where the author is 

 one of that band of geologists who, under the superintendence of 

 Prof, Oldham, are working out the geology of India. Having col- 

 lected in the Gosau district a vast amount of material before his 

 departure for the East Indies, he has been induced to publish his 

 observations in consequence of what he considers the great errors in 

 Herr Zekeh's account of the Gosau Gasteropoda ; and it was with a 

 view of rescuing geological science from these errors, some of which 

 are pointed out, that he undertook the critical examination of these 

 species, which have been too hastily increased in number by Zekeh 

 from 124 to 193 species. 



With regard to this formation, I will only quote one sentence from 

 Dr. Stoliczka's work, to show one fades of the Gosau deposit. "It 

 is well known that during some one of the elevations of the calca- 

 reous rocks of the Alps, after the deposition of the Lower Chalk, the 

 calcareous crust was cracked and opened out in numerous directions. 

 These fractures extended downwards to the 'hunter Sandstein.' 

 The sea of the Upper Chalk period penetrated these openings, took 

 up its material chiefly from the ' hunter Sandstein,' and deposited 

 it again under a somewhat altered form. This is the reason why 

 our Gosau beds generally rest immediately on the ' hunter Sandstein,' 

 and why it is often no easy task to decide what is Gosau deposit and 

 what belongs to the ' hunter Sandstein.' The occurrence of fossils 

 affords the easiest and safest solution of the question. The Gosau 

 beds were thus deposited in bays and inlets of the sea, which, how- 

 ever, had a far greater extension than now appears ; not only the 

 abundance and variety of the fauna, but positive proof derived from 

 the conditions of the deposit leave no doubt on this point. Mighty 

 rivers soon emptied themselves into these bays, and drove away the 

 true marine fauna. A peculiar molluscous fauna developed itself at 

 the mouth of these rivers with species of Cerithium, Potamides, 

 Nerita, and Omphalia, accompanied no doubt by numerous fish and 

 gigantic Saurians." He further shows that, under the influence of 

 this great addition of fresh water, the water itself became brackish, 

 or alternately marine and lacustrine. By degrees, the marine 

 fauna was checked and driven more towards the middle of the sea, 

 where it was powerfully developed in the neighbourhood of islands 

 or in other favourable localities. 



I would also have given some account of the following papers, had 

 time permitted : — 



" On the Cephalopod family Acanthoteuthis/^ by Prof. Ed. Suess, 

 read at the meeting of the Imperial Academy of Sciences on March 

 16, 1865. 



" On the Formation of the Bunter Sandstein and Muschelkalk in 

 upper Silesia and its Fossils," by Dr. Henry Eck. 



''On the Tithonic Etage," by Prof. Oppel of Munich, published 

 in the journal of the German Geological Society, 1865. This for- 

 mation is intermediate between the Upper Jurassic and Lower Cre- 



voL. XXII. e 



