54 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



example of some of the other Societies domiciled in Burlington 

 House, and introduce the electric light, was the subject of anxious 

 deliberation; bat the Council were compelled to decide that they 

 could not at present recommend the Society to indulge in this 

 desirable, but unfortunately rather expensive, luxury. 



We may point to the forty-third volume of our Journal as the 

 best evidence of the activity of the Society in promoting the cultiva- 

 tion of every branch of Geological Science. For my own part I 

 regard this work of making known new discoveries, by means of 

 our Abstracts and Journals, as the highest function that the Society 

 performs, and I think that we ought to spare no expense, either in 

 printing or in illustrations, vrhich may be requisite to enable our 

 publications to maintain the high character which they have acquired. 

 It must be remembered that only a comparatively small proportion 

 of those who subscribe to the funds of the Society are able to avail 

 themselves of the advantages offered by our Library and Museum, 

 or can attend our evening meetings ; but the publications of the 

 Society constitute the one benefit in which all our Fellows parti- 

 cipate. At the same time the ever-extending line of volumes, with 

 the tendency of each succeeding one to increase in bulk, may well 

 awaken grave reflections from time to time as to the possible danger 

 of the demands upon the Society, as a publishing body, proving 

 greater than the means at our disposal. 



My predecessor in this Chair has suggested that when difficulties 

 of this kind are felt, the pnining-knife ought first to be applied in 

 the case of papers relating to the Geology of distant regions, in 

 which the great bulk of our Fellows may be naturally supposed to 

 take the least interest. Accepting the justice of the general 

 priaciple laid down, and agreeing that all subjects of purely local 

 interest, either British or Colonial, might well be dealt with by the 

 numerous provincial societies so rapidlj^ growing up both at home 

 and abroad, yet I should deeply regret that this Society should ever 

 decline to publish any paper on Colonial, or even Foreign Geology, 

 which constitutes a real and important addition to the sum of 

 geological knowledge. 



Of the Fellows of this Society I find that no less than 18 per 

 cent, live outside the British Islands, and that more than 10 per 

 cent, of our Members (exclusive of our Foreign Members and Corre- 

 spondents) are resident in British Colonies and dependencies. 



I would venture to suggest another remedy which would not 

 involve us in the risk of alienating the sympathies of so large and 

 important a section of our Fellows, It seems to me that the 



