XXVIU PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



questioned me closely as to my opinion, whether the strata of Faxoe, 

 containing certain species of Cyprea, Oliva, Mitra, and other genera 

 usually regarded as characteristic of the tertiary period, really be- 

 longed to that epoch, or to the cretaceous rocks. That the latter 

 conclusion was correct I had satisfied myself, after exploring the chffs 

 of Moen and Seeland, as I have explained in your Transactions ; and 

 you are aware that the Faxoe beds, together with those of Maestricht 

 and Sezanne near Paris, have been recently classed as an upper mem- 

 ber of the great cretaceous system*. 



When Christian VIII. succeeded to the throne, the cares and duties 

 of an absolute monarch did not make him forgetful of his former 

 love for natural history. He was always accessible to scientific 

 foreigners and natives, and set on foot several publications, among 

 which . I may mention the ' Gea Danica ' of Professors Steenstrup 

 and Forchhammer. He also gave his patronage to a splendid bo- 

 tanical work on the palms of Mexico, by Professor Liebmann, and 

 promoted liberally the geological expedition of Baron Waltershausen 

 and Professor Bunsen to Iceland. He also took care that a good 

 naturalist should accompany the voyage of the Galathea round the 

 world ; and when that expedition returned, he directed that the valua- 

 ble collections, made by the ofiicers in various countries, should be 

 divided equally between the Universities of Copenhagen and Kiel. 

 As Crown Prince, he had been elected President of the Academy of 

 Sciences at Copenhagen, and when he attended their meetings, after 

 his accession to the throne, he always declined to be received as king, 

 taking his place simply as a member, or as any other President. 

 After a reign of nine years, he died in January 1848. 



The Earl of Auckland is well known to have zealously used his 

 influence in England, and the political power which for some years 

 he wielded as Governor-General in India, in the encouragement of 

 various branches of science and natural history. When the Directors 

 of the East India Company determined in 1844 to send out a geo- 

 logist to survey the coal-fields of Bengal, Madras, 'and other parts 

 of their Eastern possessions, I was consulted by Lord Auckland, then 

 lately returned from the East, in regard to the best mode of orga- 

 nizing the undertaking, and was struck with his earnestness in forward- 

 * Geol. Trans. 2nd series, vol. v. p. 249. 



