1XXX1V PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [May 1 896,. 



the discovery of Radiolaria in the chert of the Culm-beds of 

 Devon, Cornwall, and West Somerset ; and Messrs. W. Hill and 

 A. J". Jukes-Browne describe the occurrence of Radiolaria in the 

 Chalk. 



Mr. S. S. Buckman, in his paper on the Bajocian of the Mid- 

 Cotswolds, records the results of a vast amount of detailed strati- 

 graphical and palaeontological work based upon the Ammonite and 

 Brachiopod faunas of this area. Dr. J. W. Gregory treats of the 

 Palaeontology and Physical Geology of the West Indies. There are 

 three papers on Madagascar: (1) by the Rev. R. Baron on the 

 Geology of the Northern part of that island ; (2) by Mr. R. Bullen 

 Newton on the Fossil Mollusca ; and (3) by Mr. R. Lydekker on 

 a Sauropodous Dinosaur from the same region. 



Prof. Amalizky contributes a paper on the Permian Freshwater 

 Lamellibranchiata from Russia and South Africa ; Mr. H. M. Bernard 

 one on the Systematic Position of the Trilobites ; and Miss J. Donald 

 treats of British Carboniferous Species of Murchisonia. 



I refer to these papers in order to express the hope that they 

 may be taken to indicate (like the periodic variations in climatic 

 conditions) a recent tendency in students of geology to turn towards 

 palae ontology, and not to entirely ignore her in favour of her 

 sister petrology. 



Thirty-four other papers deal with dynamical, penological, physio- 

 graphical, and stratigraphical geology, in all quarters of the globe, 

 and demonstrate the earnest and active interest which the Fellows 

 of the Society take in the promotion of our science. 



The Geological Survey of the United Kingdom. 



In the early days of the Geological Survey my predecessors made 

 a point of commenting on the annual progress made by that 

 Institution, and remembering that some of the early fathers of the 

 Society had a share in the establishment of the Survey, we may 

 naturally feel a parental interest in its welfare. 



Some years have now elapsed since any special Presidential 

 remarks were made on the subject ; a brief reference by Prof. Judd, 

 a former member of the staff, appears in his address to this Society 

 in 1887, but the latest general account of progress was given so 

 long ago as 1868, by Sir Warington Smyth, who, likewise an old 

 member of the Survey, had in former years mapped some areas, 

 and had in particular traced the course of many metalliferous veins 

 in his capacity of Mining Geologist. 



