PllOCEEDINGS OF GEOLOGICAL SOCIETIES. 



259 



pressing unequally on the inferior beds, would, when these were soft (as 

 the Neocomian marls), press them up into arched conditions, like those of 

 the floors of coal-mines in what the miners called " creeps." Many ano- 

 malous positions of the beds of Spatangen-kalk in the district of the Lake 

 of Annecy were in all probability owing to this cause : they might be 

 studied advantageously in the sloping base of the great Eochers de Lanfon, 

 which, disintegrating in curved, nearly vertical flakes, each a thousand feet 

 in height, were nevertheless a mere outlying remnant of the great hori- 

 zontal formation of the Parmelan, and formed, like it, of very thin hori- 

 zontal beds of Eudisten-kalk, imposed on shaly masses of Neocomian, 

 modified by their pressure. More complex forms of harder rock were 

 wrought by the streams and rains into fantastic outlines ; and the trans- 

 verse gorges were cut deep where they had been first traced by fault or 

 distortion. The analysis of this aqueous action would alone require a series 

 of discourses ; but the sum of the facts was that the best and most interest- 

 ing portions of the mountains were just those which were finally left, the 

 centres and joints as it were of the Alpine anatomy. Immeasurable periods 

 of time would be required to wear these away; and to all appearances, 

 during the process of their destruction, others were rising to take their 

 place, and forms of perhaps far more nobly organized mountain would 

 witness the collateral progress of humanity. 



Manchester Scientific Students' Association. — The Association 

 originated in the latter part of 1861, by the efforts of a few ardent lovers 

 of science, who, stimulated by the recollection of the great pleasure they 

 had derived from attending the sectional meetings of the British Asso- 

 ciation on the occasion of its visit to Manchester, conceived the project 

 of organizing in that city a permanent association, to enable students to 

 meet frequently for the discussion of scientific topics, and to afford them 

 opportunities of frequent intercourse. The institution numbers some seventy 

 members or more, and during the two sessions of last year, thirty lectures 

 were delivered and five conversaziones held, one of which latter was geolo- 

 gical. Amongst the lectures were the following geological topics : — " The 

 Coal Formation and its Fossils," by Mr. G. Butterworth ; " The Chemistry 

 of Coal," by Mr. James Eichards ; " On Volcanic Action," by Mr. T. 

 Moss ; " Geological Traces of Primaeval Man," by Mr. W. C. Unwin ; 

 " Iron," by Mr. E. Drew ; " The Chalk Formation," by Mr. S. Shirley ; 

 " On Vertebrate Life — its History and Peculiarities," by Mr. G-. D. Hatton ; 

 " On Gold," by Mr. E. Drew. During the present year the geological 

 lectures have been " The Hypozoic Eocks," by Mr. Eichard Smith ; " The 

 Lowest Fossiliferous Eocks of England," by Mr. Samuel Shirley ; " The 

 Devonian System," by Mr. George D. Hatton ; " The Flora of the Coal- 

 Measures, " by Mr. William Grindon ; " Ice as an Agent of Geological 

 Change," by Mr. F. Carulla ; " Fossil Saurians," by Mr. E. Butterworth. 

 Excursions have also been made ; amongst them, visits to the collieries of 

 Worsley and Pendleton, and to the copper and lead mines at Alderley. 



Eichmond Mechanics' Institute. — Mr. S. W. North, of York, has 

 lectured on the antiquity of man. The title of his lecture was, " Has not 

 Man existed a hundred thousand years ? " The now, to geologists, fami- 

 liar topics were treated with lucidity and perspicuitj^, the lecturer agreeing 

 in the recognized conclusions of the high antiquity of the human race, and 

 the evidences of the fossil flint-implements which, as " works of his hands," 

 he considers speak in unmistakable terms of man's presence, and serve to 

 tell, not only of his existence, but something of his history." 



Geologists' Association. — On the 20th ult. a number of the members 

 of this association assembled at Kew Gardens, where, under the guidance 



