ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT. 47 



of the questions involved in this controversy cannot be settled in the 

 present state of our knowledge ; but on two of great importance, the 

 two most vital to his theor}', viz. the great antiquity of the so-called 

 Dimetian rocks and the separability of the Pebidian from the 

 Cambrian, Dr. Hicks brought forward evidence which it is difficult 

 to gainsay. Henceforth it will, I think, be admitted that the Dimetian 

 cannot be regarded as an intrusive igneous rock of Palaeozoic age ; and 

 that the Pebidian has. stratigraphically, at least as good a claim to be 

 considered a distinct formation as the Lower Silurian of the Survey. 



In anticipation of the meeting of the British Association in 

 Canada, we received an excellent summary of the geology of the 

 district traversed by the Canadian Pacific Railway from our old 

 friend Principal Dawson, who is always a welcome visitor on this side 

 of the Atlantic, and in whose well-earned additional dignity we all 

 rejoice. Professor Green proposed a new reading for a well-known 

 but admittedly difficult section at Llanberis. Mr. J. J. H. Teall has 

 added to his reputation by his thorough and exhaustive paper " On 

 the Chemical and Microscopical Characters of the Whin SiU," and that 

 '• 'On the Conversion of a Dolerite into Hornblende-schist." Professor 

 Judd has found time amidst his pressing duties to give us another 

 instalment of his investigations in Scotland in the paper read at our 

 last meeting " On the Tertiary and older Peridotites of the Western 

 Islands," a paper which will not only add largely to our knowledge 

 of some very interesting rocks, but also be a most suggestive one to 

 the petrologist. At an earlier meeting in my year of office Professor 

 Judd also presented a supplement to his important paper on the Eich- 

 mond boring, when contributions were read by Prof. Eupert Jones on 

 the Foraminifera and Ostracoda, by Dr. G. J. Hinde on the Calci- 

 spongiae, and by Mr. G. E. Yiue on the Polyzoa obtained from the cores. 

 A paper dealing with a cognate subject and of hardly less interest was 

 that by Mr. J. Eunson on the range of the Palaeozoic rocks beneath 

 Northampton. The author laid before us the details of four borings 

 in the Northamptonshire area, of which three had been observed by 

 himself. At Kettering Eoad, one mile N.E. of Northampton, after 

 passing through beds of the Inferior Oolite and the whole thickness of 

 the Lias, about 67 feet of strata were traversed, Avhich might repre- 

 sent some part of the Trias, after which beds of the Carboniferous 

 series were struck at a depth of 805 ft. 6 inches and pierced for about 

 45 ft. At Gayton the beds assigned to the Trias were 61 feet in thick- 

 ness, and these were followed by beds of more dubious age for 22ft. 

 6 inches, after which indubitable Lower Carboniferous Limestones 

 and Shales were traversed for 190 feet, and were followed by red grits 

 and marl, pierced for a depth of 105 feet. These rocks, be they Lower 

 Carboniferous or Old Eed Sandstone, or yet earlier, are certainly 

 made up, in part at least, of the ruins of granitoid rocks, and . are 

 interesting as throwing light upon the probable source of many 

 fragments of reddish grit in the Trias of the north-east of England. 

 It seems to me not impossible that rocks similar in composition to 

 these may have helped to constitute the ancient uplands which 

 probably formed the eastern boundary of the river-valley in connexion 



