ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT. XXXV 



Nevertheless, with every reservation for the future enlargement of 

 our ideas respecting the comparative perfection of the living creation 

 in our own times and in the remoter ages, we may at least assert, that 

 in the present state of our science the eocene fauna and flora may be 

 contrasted with those of older date, in regard to the more complete 

 manner in which they represent the animal and vegetable creation. 



In the chronological classification of the materials composing the 

 crust of the earth, it has been often asked, whether we ought to ascribe 

 to the older tertiary epoch, or to the cretaceous system, the great num- 

 mulitic formation of the Alps, and other parts of Europe. This much- 

 controverted question, — one, as I shall presently point out, of the high- 

 est theoretical interest, in reference to the hypothesis of the unabated 

 intensity of the existing agents of change, — was declared by M. Bone, 

 some years ago, to be the great problem of the day, and Sir R. Mur- 

 chison has therefore devoted to its consideration a large portion of his 

 memoir. M. Boue indeed announced in 1847 his own conviction 

 that the nummulitic rocks belonged to the eocene or lower tertiary 

 period, and remarked, in a paper read to the French Geological So- 

 ciety in that year, how much delight Alexander Brongniart would 

 have experienced, had he lived to see one of his boldest and most 

 startling generalizations thus crowned with success*. Al. Brongniart 

 had in fact declared many years before, that the shells of the summit 

 of the Diablerets, one of the loftiest of the Swiss Alps, which rises 

 more than 10,000 feet above the sea, were referable to species cha- 

 racteristic of the eocene strata of the neighbourhood of Paris. He 

 only felt considerable hesitation, he said, in assigning to them so 

 modern a date, because the overlying limestones were so compact 

 and homogeneous as to agree in lithological character with much older 

 secondary rocks. 



Several of the most animated discussions which have taken place 

 in this room since 1825, have turned, as you will recollect, on this 

 subject, especially when the fossil shells brought by Mr. Pratt from 

 Biaritz in the Pyrenees were laid upon our table. A decided 

 opinion was then expressed by many of us that the nummulitic series 

 of that southern chain must be referred to the lower part of the 

 eocene group, as it was made clear that the proportion of fossil spe- 

 cies common to the Biaritz beds and the chalk was extremely small — 

 • * Bulletin, vol. v. 2ad Series, pp, 69, 71. 



