ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT. CV 



siasm about the history of the past world, such as Weber, Von Hauer, 

 Von Hagenow, Schnur, in addition to those which have long become 

 household words amongst men of science. 



Of the latter, the distinguished countryman of Dumont, M. de 

 Koninck, is still earnest in his endeavours to perfect the fauna of the 

 Carboniferous epoch. In a paper addressed to the Belgian Academy, 

 he notices the distribution of some of the Carboniferous fossils, stating 

 that he had already determined the existence of more than 600 species. 

 These he has grouped in three sections, — the first belonging to the 

 Coal-formation, properly so called, the second to the limestone of 

 Vise, and the third to the limestone of Tournay. In Belgium, the 

 fossils of the first section are peculiar to the strata in which they are 

 found ; but in the other two groups some are found common to both, 

 whilst others are characteristic of either one or the other limestone. 

 M. de Koninck adds that the same facts may be observed in both Eng- 

 land and Russia, — the fossils of the neighbourhood of Bristol and of 

 Moscow being the same as those of the limestone of Tournay, whilst 

 those of Newcastle, Glasgow, and Gosatschi-datchi in the Oural Chain 

 are identical with those of Vise. Whilst, indeed, he observes, this 

 existence of the same species at widely-separated localities is one of 

 the great palaeontological facts, it is not less curious to observe how 

 localized some species are, though belonging to the same epoch (a 

 fact, I may add, equally observed in recent natural history), as for 

 example, Sjpirifer striatus, S. rotundatus, and S. cuspidatus, abundant 

 in the Carboniferous limestone of the neighbourhood of Dublin, are not 

 found at Hook Head, county of Wexford ; and in the same manner, 

 the limestone of Tournay has never furnished these Spirifers, though 

 they are abundant in that of Dinant, which belongs to the other sec- 

 tion. As an interesting notice of new discovery, he states that M. 

 Dupont, to whom he was indebted for the latter remark, has also 

 enabled him to state that 130 species of Mollusca are found in con- 

 nection with the Spirifers, of which about 30 are new, including some 

 magnificent specimens of Cardiomorpha, Avicula, and Aviculopecten, 

 which M. de Koninck proposes to describe very shortly, as an addition 

 to a fauna already so rich. 



Before closing this brief notice of the labours of one of our most 

 active foreign friends, I may observe that he submitted to the British 

 Association at Dublin last year his description of a third species of 

 the genus Davidsonia. In the generic name he had testified his 

 recognition of the merits of one of our most able palaeontologists, and 

 in the specific he has borne testimony to those of another of our most 

 able naturalist members, by adopting the term Woodwardiana. This 

 Devonian genus he places in the family of Productidae, from the 

 existence of spines along the hinge, which separates it from the 

 Strophomenidae, whilst he does not think there is any reason for 

 establishing a specific family under the appellation of Davidsonidae. 

 Every peculiar Devonian type must be considered an advantage 

 gained, by those who maintain the independence of that formation. 



It is right to observe that, whilst our knowledge of the fauna of 

 the ancient world is daily increasing, new information respecting 



