ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT. 



229 



with. 2 species of corals, Lithostrotiou irregulare and Lonsdaleia jlo- 

 riformis ; the Coal-measures at Burford with Cyclopteris orbicularis, 

 Neuropteris, and Pecopteris. By degrees we are arriving at sufficient 

 data to enable us to judge somewhat of the physiography of these 

 older accumulations or formations and arriving at their distribution. 

 The sources of the oldest sedimentary strata will probably ever 

 remain a myster}' ; the materials that supplied these oldest British 

 strata have wholly disappeared ; the extent, distribution, and dimen- 

 sions of the Palaeozoic series all afford indications and proofs of the 

 vast regions in the north and west which have been thus denuded or 

 washed away. 



This brings me to the consideration of the proof of the extension 

 of the Upper Silurian and Devonian rocks eastward of the Malvern 

 chain, the Staffordshire beds (Dudley), and the Bristol Coal-basin, 

 obtained at no less than five places, if not six ; the seventh was 

 unfortunately never completed. 



The oldest rocks yet touched are the Wenlock ; they were deter- 

 mined at Ware, in Hertfordshire, at 795 feet, immediately beneath 

 the Gault, during the process of boring for an extra supply of water 

 for the New Biver Company. These beds dip at an angle of 40° to 

 the S.E.; consequently their strike is from the N.E. to the S.W.; and 

 probably the Devonians rest upon them in succession, as they are 

 known to occur at Turnford, 7 or 8 miles to the south of Ware, and 

 continuously on to London. No rocks, however, except 1 foot of 

 Lower Greensand (" Carr stone"), came in between the Silurian and 

 the Gault — the Devonian, Carboniferous, and all the Lower Secondary 

 rocks being unrepresented. This feature in the palaeogeography 

 of the eastern region of England, long ago anticipated in some form 

 by Austen, Prestwich, and Hull, has now been verified, and the age 

 of the rocks determined. The line occupied by the Wenlock rocks 

 may be higher or nearer to the north than was hypothetieally believed 

 by the authors above mentioned, but not more so than the 

 course or strike of the Silurians and Devonians w r ould probably 

 take, having regard to the position of the Malvern, Woolhope, May- 

 Hill, and Tortworth Silurians to the west, although the Ware beds 

 can hardly be referred to the type of Silurian rocks that exists at 

 the places above named. It will therefore be asked whether this 

 Wenlock at Ware is of British or continental type ; in other words, 

 can it be correlated with our Welsh or English tipper Silurian, or is 

 it of the Ardennes type ? Do they constitute a portion of the Staf- 

 fordshire (Dudley) or Shropshire (Wenlock) Silurians, spreading away 

 eastwards towards Belgium ? or are they a prolongation of the Silu- 

 rians of Belgium to the west, or a western extension from the con- 

 tinent ? In other words, does this Wenlock at Ware belong to the 

 edge of another basin or coast-line, an extension from Western 

 Europe or Scandinavia, or an easterly expansion of the Upper 

 Silurian of the Silurian area? The facies of the fossils and the 

 characters of the rock in all essentials are decidedly British ; yet 

 there is much resemblance to the Scandinavian fauna, a prolongation 

 of the rocks containing which is by no means impossible or impro- 



ve!. XXXVII. 



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