ANNIVERSARr ADDUESS OF THE PRESIDENT. xH 



Tuscan geologists with reference to the often debated question of 

 the true history of the celebrated marble of Carrara. Por some time 

 past these marble beds have been, in a very hypothetical manner, 

 placed on a parallel with the Lias ; but the newer researches appear 

 to prove, 1st, that there exist two successive series of white marbles; 

 2dly, that the upper range, as greatly developed near Pisa, belongs 

 generally to the Trias ; 3rdly, that the lower series, constituting the 

 greater part of the beds of Carrara &c., are covered by slates and 

 by talcose and ampelitic schists, a group represented in the Apuan 

 Alps by the formation of Tano or the true Verrucano ; 4thly, that 

 the marbles repose in their turn upon crystalline schists (the Verru- 

 cano of Savi), which are now considered Prsesilurian ; and hence, 

 Stilly, that we must revert to the old idea which assigned the mar- 

 bles of Carrara, Serravezza, &c. to the Palaeozoic period. 



The admirable work which has been accompHshed by the Austrian 

 Government Geological Survey is doubtless well known to most of 

 our associates ; and as I have received from my valued and able 

 friend, Chev. Franz von Hauor, a most interesting summary of 

 their recent results, I cannot do better than communicate his report 

 by allowing him to speak for himself, as follows : — • 



"As far as I am aware, the last information on the progress of our 

 labour, laid before the English public, was in a Eeport addressed by 

 my predecessor in the management of the Imperial Royal Geological 

 Reichsanstalt — our honoured Haidinger — to the Meeting of the 

 British Association for the Advancement of Science at Birmingham. 



" Our survey work has been carried on since that time exclusively 

 in the north-western part of Hungary, the mapping of which is 

 now already completed to the eastern foot of the highest mountain - 

 group of the Carpathians, the central mass of the High Tatra. Yery 

 remarkable are the analogies as well as the contrasts offered by this 

 western portion of the Carpathians (between Presburg and the me- 

 ridian of Kaschau) in comparison with the Alps. 



" The several groups, distinctly isolated from one another, of crys- 

 talline rocks (granite and crystalline schists) which, distributed 

 very irregularly, come to light throughout the district, involuntarily 

 remind one of the so-called central masses of the western Alps ; but 

 the sedimentary rocks which surround and separate them from one 

 another show nothing of the action of that widely developed meta- 

 morphism which the rocks of the schistose envelope of the central 

 Alps present to view. Manifold are the discoveries which have been 

 brought out by a close examination of these sedimentary beds. The 

 oldest member of these, as established with any degree of certainty, 

 consists of the schists and limestones of the Culm -formation ; yet 

 Foetterle has lately found data which make it probable that a stiU 

 deeper-lying group of strata, consisting of quartzites, schists, Kme- 

 stones, &c., is to be placed on a parallel with the Silurian Grey- 

 wacke of the Alps. Widely extended masses of quartzite, frequently 

 in association with Melaphyre, but unfortunately always without 

 organic remains, represent, perhaps, in a measure the Permian or 

 Dyas Formation. Again the Trias is decidedly recognized, deve- 



VOL. XXIV. d 



