7 



otherwise be lost) by confining the attention to one bed, or a set 

 of beds, instead of hammering away nnder a vague impression that 

 something is to be done, though you know not exactly what."* 

 We hope that, at every meeting of this Association, communications 

 of observed facts will be made by members. The statement of these 

 will appear in the printed minutes of our proceedings ; and these, 

 being circulated among all our members, will convey to every quarter 

 some of those means for comparison, and suggestions for research, 

 which are what the Local Geologist most needs, both to encourage 

 and enlighten him. 



That an Association like the present was much needed, is perhaps 

 quite enough proved by the fact that, within six weeks after the first 

 private meeting had been held, by a few gentlemen, to talk over 

 the proposal, and without any recourse to the ordinary means of 

 attracting public attention, no less than 150 gentlemen sent their 

 written request to be enrolled as Members — many of them well 

 known in Geological Science. So far, the success of the attempt 

 far exceeds the most sanguine expectations of the founders of the 

 Association. It remains necessary to its success, that what it pro- 

 poses to do shall be well understood, and carried out with spirit and 

 perseverance. 



And here I will glance at a point to which I should not have 

 thought it worth while to allude, did I not know that, even among 

 the wise and good, there are some timid men, who will be needlessly 

 afraid, at times, that there is a ghost behind the chair. It is really 

 quite past the time when there was any need for dwelling on the 

 avowal, that such an Association as the present has nothing to do 

 with "theories of the earth." Were it not that certain informa- 

 tion has reached me, that there do exist benevolent ghost-seers who 

 have already begun to grow pale, I should not have thought it 

 necessary to remind any one that Geo-logy is not Geo-genesy. 

 We have to learn the facts, and to help towards a true generali- 

 zation of the statement of the relations of the facts, that are to be 

 seen on the earth as we find it. We are not about idly to mystify 

 each other with theories of what took place when the earth M as 

 " without form and void." Mr. Ephraim Jenkinson put that matter 

 on its true footing, when he sagely remarked to the respectable Dr. 



* 'The Geologist,' vol. i. p. 301. 



