ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT. cxiil 
abundantly show how, if land be slowly sinking beneath any given 
level of the sea, or successive layers of mud and sand be accumulating, 
tracks of birds, reptiles and mammals may be preserved. Mr. Lyell 
pointed out the manner in which foot-prints of the sandpiper (T'ringa 
minuta) are preserved in the red mud of the Bay of Fundy, and the drift 
of blown sand fills up the foot-prints of opossums and racoons on the 
beach near Savannah, Georgia. The tides rising high in our Bristol 
Channel and its continuation, the estuary of the Severn, and there 
being much difference between spring and neap tides, abundant 
opportunities are there often afforded for studying foot-prints of 
various kinds, mixed with estuary drift, such as different shells 
(terrestrial among them), terrestrial plants and sea-weeds, and other 
things. Many other localities around our islands also afford excel- 
lent opportunities for this study. 
Professor Ehrenberg, to whom we owe so much for the discovery 
of the remains of infusoria in such abundance among some of our 
fossiliferous deposits as to form no unimportant part of them, has 
added further to the obligations of geologists by his examination of 
certain pumiceous marls of Barbadoes, brought to Europe by Sir 
Robert Schomburgk. In 1839 M. Ehrenberg made known some 
new microscopic polygastrica with siliceous shells, some living, one 
- species fossil, so peculiar in their structure that he deemed it neces- 
sary to constitute a new order, under the name of Polycystina, for 
their reception. Up to the time of Sir Robert Schomburgk’s visit to 
Barbadoes, only thirty-nine species of this group had been observed: 
in the marls before-mentioned no fewer than 282 species, belonging 
to seven families and forty-four genera of Polycystina, have been 
brought to light—all new. Whatever these singular organisms may 
eventually prove to be, this is probably the most striking instance of 
the sudden increase of our knowledge of any single group of fossil 
animals ever recorded. 
The Parallel Roads of Glenroy, as they have been termed, have 
long and deservedly attracted the attention of geologists, and several 
explanations have been offered. Mr. David Milne, in his paper upon 
these terraces (published in 1847), considers that they should be 
attributed to the shore-action of lakes, formed by mounds of boulder 
clay and detritus across the valleys which barred the drainage. To 
the lowering of these barriers by river-action would be due, Mr. 
David Milne considers, the levels at which the successive pauses 
of the lakes continued sufficiently long to produce the so-called 
parallel roads. These are shown to be perfectly horizontal by actual 
measurements, and similar beach-lines are pomted out on hills in 
other parts of the country. Although around the prominent ele- 
vations of land which have risen through the sea, with sufficient 
intermediate pauses to permit a notching, or cutting back of the 
land by breaker-action at different times, we should expect evidence 
of such pauses in cliffs and raised beaches, such as we undoubtedly 
find, lake action as pointed out by Mr. David Milne must also be 
regarded. There is no difficulty in many lands, mountainous regions 
especially, in seeing that lakes have been drained by the cutting back 
VOL. IV.—PART I. h 
