XC PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



alligator and of several new mammalia in the eocene beds of Hordwell 

 Cliff in Hampshire; of a new Bulimus from the same formation near 

 London ; of a species of Mososaurus from the chalk of Essex by Mr. 

 Charlesworth ; of a new species of Ichthyosaurus from the lower chalk 

 in the vicinity of Cambridge; and Mr. King of Newcastle on Tyne has 

 made known to us the existence of a Chiton in the magnesian lime- 

 stone of Sunderland, a genus of very rare occurrence in the fossil 

 state, and of which a Silurian species has been described by Mr. Salter 

 in a paper read before us last June, and published in the number of 

 our Journal which appeared on the 1st of this month. 



On the Continent, new works on palaeontology appear in rapid suc- 

 cession. Among the most recent, the * Palseontographia ' of Durker 

 and Von Meyer, and the * Petrefactenkunde Deutschlands ' of Pro- 

 fessor Quenstedt may especially be mentioned, on account of the beauty 

 of their illustrations. The latter work contains excellent figures and 

 careful and fully-detailed descriptions of fossil Cephalopoda. The re- 

 searches of Beyrich on Trilobites and of Volborth on Cystidea may 

 also be noticed on account of their interest to the student of British 

 palseozoic fossils. Numerous new Trilobites have been described in a 

 little work on the Silurian strata of Bohemia by M. Barrande, well- 

 worthy of the attention of the geologists of this country ; but it is 

 very desirable that figures of the new forms therein announced, and 

 too briefly described, should be speedily published. 



One of the most valuable contributions to palaeontology from the 

 Continent, during 1846, is the admirable account of the fossils of 

 Petschora by Count von Keyserling, illustrated by excellent drawings, 

 forming a worthy supplement to M. de Verneuil's researches in Rus- 

 sian palaeontology. 



It now only remains for me, before quitting this Chair, to express 

 to you my deep sense of the obligation I am under to you, for the 

 pleasure I have had during the last two years in the discharge of the 

 duties of your President. I became a member of this Society a few 

 months after its foundation, now nearly forty years ago, and the active 

 part I have lately had to take in the management of your affairs has 

 renewed the pleasures I enjoyed as one of the secretaries, in my 

 younger days, for nearly six years. To the Geological Society I am 

 directly and indirectly indebted for some of the chief sources of my 

 happiness throughout the greater part of my life ; and gratitude 

 alone will prompt me to lose no opportunity of advancing its honour 

 and usefulness, were I ever to cease to take an interest in the 

 progress of our science ; an abandonment of an old attachment 

 which I shall not contemplate as possible. It gives me much satis- 

 faction, that, by the choice you have just made, I am to be succeeded 

 by my distinguished friend Sir Henry De la Beche ; one so able, and 

 so determined, I am convinced, to show during his presidency, that 

 this Society continues to be a powerful instrument for the advance- 

 ment of geological science, a centre of good fellowship, and a band of 

 independent scientific men, who will steadily and fearlessly promote 

 the cause of truth. 



