Vol. 50.] ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS OP THE PRESIDENT. 83 



is, however, in respect of the fossiliferous Cambrians and correla- 

 tions of these with European strata that I am desirous of quoting 

 them. This veteran Author alludes to the fact that, of 43 papers 

 contributed by him to the Journal of the Society since 1845, 10 

 relate to Eozoic and older Palaeozoic, 29 to Devonian and Carboni- 

 ferous, and 4 to Mesozoic and Modern. The Cambrian geology of 

 Scotland has received considerable attention of late years. The 

 paper by Sir Archibald Geikie on the ' Age of the Altered Lime- 

 stone of Strath in Skye ' may be included under this head. Then 

 there is a considerable portion of the wonderful memoir by Messrs. 

 Peach and Home, which was justly described as three or four 

 papers rolled into one, and lastly the paper by the same Authors 

 on the Olenellus-zone in the North-west Highlands. 



Beginning with a very low horizon of fossiliferous Cambrian 

 in North Wales, I may remark that some time has now elapsed 

 since Prof. Dobbie forwarded to Dr. "Woodward specimens of a trilo- 

 bite from the Penrhyn slate-quarry which the latter, on comparing 

 with Paradoxides, Angelina, Ogygia, and Olenus, concluded to place 

 in the genus Conocoryplie, naming the species C. viola. This fossil 

 is interesting from the fact that, so far as I know, it is the lowest 

 fossil belonging to an undoubted Cambrian facies which has 

 hitherto been discovered in North "Wales, although, according to 

 the remarks of Dr. Hicks at the time, the lowest fossiliferous 

 horizon at St. David's is yet older. Subsequently he observed that 

 Mr. "Walcott, in his recent memoir on the Olenellus-f&xma, said that 

 the Conocoryphe viola-zone of the Penrhyn quarry must be included 

 in the Lowest Cambrian. As a matter of fact the specimens of 

 Conocoryphe viola were obtained from the upper green bed of the 

 quarry, which immediately underlies the grits forming the brow of 

 Bronllwyd, and consequently above the Purple Slates. Speaking at 

 the time when the paper was read, Dr. Hicks said that the position 

 of the fossils seemed to be above the Llanberis Slates, but at the 

 base of the Harlech Grit series. In view of the questions raised by 

 Prof. Blake, to which I shall have to call your attention presently, 

 it is of some importance to bear these things in mind. 



It will be necessary now to refer to Sir J. "W. Dawson's papers, 

 ^o far as he correlates American with European Cambrians : one 

 <;hief object of the Author being to compare the Cambrians of the 

 Acadian provinces with those of the interior of America on the 

 one hand, and of "Western Europe on the other. It may be that 

 Palaeozoic geologists are by no means unanimous in accepting all 



