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



Director-General, have grappled with the difficulties and by dint 

 of detailed work on the 6-inch scale have brought order into the 

 structure of these complicated regions. Moreover they have demon- 

 strated that in many respects the interpretation of jSTicol, and the 

 key furnished by the hard work of Lapworth, have been most 

 successful in unlocking the secret of the Highlands. The maps 

 which picture the results of the Survey work are probably the 

 most elaborate that have ever been issued. 



Elsewhere the Survey has been carried on among certain of the 

 Western Islands in Skye, Paasay, and Rona, in Canna and Islay, 

 and farther south in Arran. 



In Ireland important revisions have been made in the older work, 

 especially among the Palseozoic, the Metamorphic, and the Igneous 

 rocks. The results may be studied in that excellent guide to the 

 Survey Collections in the Dublin Museum which has lately been 

 issued. 



In noticing thus briefly the work of the Survey, I cannot avoid 

 remarking on the notable accession made to the staff during the 

 past eight years, of Teall, Lamplugh, Watts, Sollas, Gibson, and 

 lastly of Harker. 



Among these additions it will be noticed that a very strong 

 Petrological element has been introduced into the Geological 

 Survey — needful, however, in solving the problems connected with 

 the ancient schists and other metamorphic rocks, and in eluci- 

 dating the structure of our various igneous rock-areas. 



Nor has Palaeontology been neglected, in testimony of which we 

 need only mention the papers by Mr. Peach in our own Quarterly 

 Journal on the Olenellus -f&mia, of Scotland, and the new and 

 strange forms of Eeptilia lately described by Mr. E. T. Newton 

 from the Elgin Sandstone — forms which are of world-wide interest. 



The acquisition of scientific facts is, however, by no means the 

 sole or main object of the Geological Survey. In the re-survey of 

 our coal-fields the practical element is foremost, while in the London 

 office all information that can be given is freely at the service of 

 those interested in the industrial applications of geology. 



By the death of Huxley the Palaeontographical Society loses 

 its President, an office which he had held since the death of Prof. 

 Owen, its former President, in 1892. 



But no change of Presidents can mar the useful and perennial 

 flow of volumes issued by this evergreen Society, which has just 



