PROCEEDINGS OP GEOLOGICAL SOCIETIES. 



169 



tissues may have disappeared in this way, so that in many coal-seams we may have 

 only a very small part of the vegetable matter produced. 



Lastly. The results stated in this paper refer to coal-beds of the middle coal- 

 measures. A few facts which I have observed lead me to believe that in the thin 

 seams of the lov/er coal-measures remains of Nosggerathia and Lepidodenclron are 

 more abundant than in those of the middle coal-measures.* In the upper coal- 

 measures similar moditications may be expected. These differences have been to 

 a certain extent ascertained by Goeppert for some of the coal-beds of Silesia, and 

 by Lesquereux for those of Ohio ; but the subject is deserving of further investi- 

 gation, more especially by the means proposed in this paper, and which I hope, 

 should time and opportunity permit, to apply to the seventy-six successive coal- 

 beds of the South Joggins. 



There were exhibited at this meeting Coal, Minerals, Fossil Leaves, &c. from 

 Sarawak ; presented by R. Coulson, Esq. 



Geologists' Association. — On Thursday, the 8th February, the second 

 ordinary meeting of this Association was held at St. Martin's Hall. The Rev. 

 Thos. Wiltshire, M.A., V.P., in the chair. 



Mr. Hyde Clarke read a paper, in which he sketched out a plan for the 

 organization of local committees in conjunction with the Association, by Avhich 

 the work of the Government surveyors and others labouring in the geological field 

 might be usefully followed up, and supplemented by the bringing together of new 

 facts, as local circumstances might favour their collection. He adverted to the 

 valuable services which had been rendered to the science by ladies, and mentioned 

 several whose names were well known as accomplished geologists. 



He beheved that much remained to be done, in more minute classification of 

 the strata, &c., by local researches, and that much good was to be effected by 

 announcements of new minerals, particularly such as would be useful as manures, 

 for building-materials, or in connexion with the manufactures ; as well as by 

 notice of such operations as new mines, quarries, wells, pits, railways, roads, 

 tunnels, &c., of land-sHps ; observations on springs, on thermal, superficial, and 

 subterranean waters ; electro-magnetic observations on mineral bodies ; earth- 

 quakes in particular districts ; the rates of erosion of shores, and of new deposi- 

 tions ; the like of river-operations ; of recent and ancient abrasions ; and many 

 other particulars, which would be not only interesting as bearing on points of 

 theoretical geology, but as likely to throw light on questions of great practical and 

 economic importance. 



From these records Mr. Clarke thought valuable reports might be drawn up, 

 from time to time, which would exhibit the progress of geological knowledge ; and 

 that thus a really useful work would be effected by the Association. 



March 8. — Professor J. Tennant gave a lecture on Mineralogy. The lecturer 

 stated that as many as 520 species of minerals were described in one English treatise 

 on the science ; and, when anyone looked at a map of the world and compared 

 the small area of the British Isles and their mineral wealth with the extent of 

 such territories as that of Canada and Hudson's Bay, and the treasures to be 

 there probably discovered, he must perceive the importance of some acquaintance 

 with the science of mineralogy. Austraha, a few years since, was only known as 

 containing a few sheep-walks, and as a penal settlement. In 1851, a piece of 

 stone was received in London and placed in the Great Exhibition, where it created 

 much sensation. It was a gold nugget. Such nuggets had been frequently 

 picked up in Australia ; stones containing the yellow metal had been built into 

 walls and houses ; but no one had, previously to this time, regarded them. Some 

 thought the metalliferous substance to be iron-pyrites, others that it was copper- 

 pyrites ; but if these persons had been acquainted with a very simple test — a 

 common file— they could have easily ascertained the difference between pyrites 

 and gold. 



* I may refer to my late paper on Devonian Plants from Canada for an example 

 of a still older coal made up principally of remains of Lycopodiaceous plants of the 

 genus Psilophyton. 



VOL. II. 



