16 Anniversary Address. 



his last works, lie must have been surprised to find the Azoic 

 strata revealing a life-form in beds much lower than the most 

 ancient strata he had argued from as the oldest. The Eozoon 

 Canadense was shortly after discovered in the Laurentian rocks 

 of Canada, far below the lowest Silurian. Trilobites have also 

 been lately found in the Longmynd or bottom rocks of England 

 and "Wales, 1560 feet lower than any previously found fossils. 

 And now, to prove the unity of design in the works of the 

 Creator, we hear of vegetable remains discovered in the Cambrian 

 rocks of Sweden and South Wales, no previous land plant 

 having been found in beds older than Upper Silurian. One 

 of these plants which is taken to represent the whole, is 

 called Eophyton Linnceaum. This plant is monocotyledonous 

 and allied to rushes ; to the same class, in fact, as that before 

 named as having been found by Mr. Wintle. 



I have been anxious to allude to another branch of scientific 

 inquiry, in order to invite attention to the discoveries made in 

 1868 respecting the sun, meteors, and comets. 



Our time is so limited and I have already trespassed so much 

 upon it, that I must omit most of what I had to say on one of 

 these topics and refer you, gentlemeu, to the last number of the 

 Quarterly Journal of Science for a most compact account by Mr. 

 Coombes of die flame like protuberances seen on the edge of the 

 sun's disc during total eclipses. These were in the long totality 

 of the great eclipse of 1868, carefully photographed and examined 

 by the spectroscope, which proved the existence of Hydrogen, 

 Sodium and Magnesium in the Sun. There is also therein a further 

 account of the way in which the protuberances, which are shown 

 to be connected with the spots on the sun, may be viewed at any 

 time even when there is no eclipse. 



The application of photography to the heavenly bodies has 

 furnished physicists with many convenient means of reference. 

 Those of the sun I have not seen, but I possess some clever 

 views of the moon ; and I have now the pleasure of showing you 

 what is equally interesting, a Photograph of a Thunderstorm at 

 Eockhampton last January, done by the glare of the lightning, 

 the flashes of which are depicted by itself, the plate having been 

 exposed for the space of a minute. 



