lxiv PKOCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [MayiCJOO, 



Turning to Palaeontology, a different picture meets our view. In 

 my early days palaeontologists were plentiful and were doing good 

 work, but that work differed somewhat from much that is done now, 

 for the world had not then before it the grand results of the long 

 labours of Darwin, whose name stands out above all others in this 

 nineteenth century, so far as natural science is concerned. The great 

 theory of Evolution itself had not been evolved, and it was not for 

 many years that its immense influence on biological science was fully 

 felt. 



I well remember the publication of ' The Origin of Species,' and 

 how Ramsay was carried away by the force and brilliance of the 

 work : no need, perhaps, to say that I followed his lead, as we 

 naturally had a habit of doing on the Geological Survey, and that 

 I have always been a humble believer in Evolution, as well as in 

 progress generally. 



Nowadays we concern ourselves less than formerly was the 

 case with mere descriptive matters, and more with the grouping and 

 relationships of species, with the history and development of past 

 forms of life. The palaeontology of the present may be said to be 

 more philosophic than that of the past, being concerned rather 

 with the filling of gaps in the life-history of the world than with 

 the recording of specific distinctions. The reign of the mere 

 species-maker is almost at an end. 



Besides a vast addition to our knowledge in all branches of palaeon- 

 tology, an outline of which would in itself form a long address, there 

 has been also a great advance in the application of palaeontology 

 to stratigraphy, in the matter of that zonal classification of which 

 we hear so much and which in some cases seems to be the chief 

 guide in unravelling the structure of a district. It is really the 

 application of palaeontology which allies that branch of science to 

 geology, rather than to biology. The coining of species, on the 

 other hand, is a biological rather than a geological crime. 



There is one matter in which the ways of the palaeontologist are 

 apt to be a little troublesome to the geologist, that is in the frequent 

 changes of name. One sometimes feels, and not in this matter 

 alone, that perfect rectitude is hardly worth the efforts that have 

 to be made to attain it. 



"With regard to the physical side of our science, important 

 advances have been recorded, notably in the domain of meta- 

 morphism, following on the rise of Petrology. In my student-days 



