50 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



for publication. To take another example from palgeontology — a 

 new species may be well worthy of description, but it may add so 

 little to our knowledge that an account of it may justly be excluded 

 from our Journal at times of pressure. This same principle of 

 division applies also to the publication of papers descriptive of the 

 geology and palseontology of distant parts of the earth. Some of 

 these papers have an interest independent of their locality. One 

 that supplies an important link missing from the chain of life ; one 

 that aids us to a right understanding of the action of natural forces, 

 or of the genesis of rocks, finds, like the brave man, a fatherland in 

 every country ; but the interest of a large number may be said to 

 vary inversely as the distance from any place, so that while they 

 would be of high value in the pages of some antipodean journal, 

 they can only find a welcome here in a season of redundancy of 

 wealth or scarcity of papers. It may be alleged with truth that we 

 have subscribers resident in all parts of the earth, — still, this is the 

 Geological Society of London, and in Great Britain the large majority 

 of our Pellows live and work. It is equally true that the Empire of 

 England is world-wide, and on this account, I have heard it asserted, 

 the, capacity of our Journal should be as all-embracing, — sentiments 

 admirable in themselves, and admirably suited for the platform of 

 the orator ; but even patriotism, when translated into action, needs 

 the sinews of war, and sentiment must be Limited by the homely 

 duty of paying your debts. Hence, I think the Council could not 

 be blamed were it sometimes to suggest to an author, resident in 

 another hemisphere of the globe, that his communication would find 

 a more appropriate birth nearer to the place of its conception. Ob- 

 viously, hard and fast lines cannot be drawn ; difficulties will arise, 

 and authors and referees will naturally sometimes differ in opinion. 

 Still I believe that it is always better to endeavour to establish and to 

 act on a principle, even if this has to be a little elastic, and I am con- 

 vinced that sonie such principle is becoming absolutely necessary unless 

 our income increases, at which solution of the -difficulty no one would 

 rejoice more than myself. It would, at any rate, I am convinced, 

 save trouble ultimately if such a princijDle were recognized and pro- 

 fessed ; for during the last eight years, I can remember more than 

 one case where valued contributors have been annoyed because the 

 Council could not undertake the publication of a paper, when, had 

 there been any general understanding of the kind which I have men- 

 tioned, the authors would have perceived that the paper was one to 

 which, under existing conditions, our funds could not properly be 

 applied. 



The papers which have been presented to the Society since I had 

 the honour of addressing you last year have been fewer in number, 

 but certainly not inferior in importance, than those which I then 

 reviewed. Among these communications on Palaeontology and 

 Stratigraphy have decidedly predominated. In Palseobotany we 

 have received papers only from Mr.'Kidston and Baron von Ettings- 

 hausen, while our knowledge of many of the classes in the extinct 

 animal world has been . augmented. Mr. Vine has written on the 



