071 the Geology of the Lahe District. 4G9 



This was a difficult point to work out, as the evidence of their posi- 

 tion is not very clear, and their lithological character not very 

 different from the nearest Trias beds. 



It is a remarkable fact that the Limestone conglomerate of St. 

 Bees is said to be the equivalent, not of the breccia or conglomerate 

 which, forms the base of the Permian near Penrith, but of that 

 which comes at the top of the Lower Permiim. If this is due 

 to the gradual and unequal submergence of the land, the St. Bees 

 area being the latest down, we ought, if we could trace the deposits 

 of the receding shore, to find the lower breccia creeping up in 

 patches to join the higher at the expense of the intermediate finer 

 formation. 



The author concludes with a notice of the occurrence of Trias and 

 Lias in tlie north of Cumberland. 



On the whole the essay, with its full lists of fossils and descrip- 

 tions of many new forms, is a very valuable contribution to geo- 

 logy ; but the author describes a large and varied district, where many 

 phenomena difficult of explanation occur, and in which, from its 

 peculiar insular conditions at successive periods, many of the forma- 

 tions have peculiar characters. It is a country in which the relation 

 of the beds to one another and to similar beds elsewhere can only be 

 made out by very detailed mapping, sections drawn to true scale, 

 and a careful determination of the exact horizon from which fossils 

 are obtained — a task sufficient to employ a large number of ob- 

 servers a very long time. 



Address to the Geological Section of the British Associa- 

 tion, Norwich, August 19, 1868. 



By Egbert A. C. G-odwin-Austen^, B.A., F.R.S., etc., President. 



THE basin of the North Sea, in the physical changes which it has 

 undergone since the commencement of the Kainozoic period, is 

 an area which well repays the study of the geologist. Suffolk and 

 Norfolk, which geologically, as they do ethnologically, form one 

 region, are part of the slope of this basin on its western side ; for the 

 North-Sea valley is a true physical depression ; the whole Secondary 

 series of strata, on one side, dips eastwardly towards it, and rises 

 again above the sea-level, on the opposite side, in Denmark. It is a 

 depresssion which dates back its origin to some distant time in geo- 

 logical history. 



It is to this area that I propose to restrict myself in those obser- 

 vations, which, in compliance with established custom, I have to 

 make in opening the meetings of this Section. 



The North-Sea depression, in its hi/drograj^Mcal features, deserves 

 a passing notice. Compared with its breadth, its depth at present 

 is exceedingly small. There are central portions where there are 

 only twelve feet of water. The " Deep-water Channel " of the 



