BRITISH ASSOCIATION MEETING. 



439 



to be overlaid (near Ormsby) by a group of clays, sandstones, and magnesian 

 limestones, containing peculiar plant remains and shells of the genus Schizodus, 

 representing in his opinion the marl-slate and magnesian limestone of Durham. 

 These again support beds equivalent to the Zechstein, and the last are covered 

 by the Triassic sandstone of the Solway. 



A very striking fact, noticed by Professor Harkness, and corroborative of 

 earlier researches made by Mr. Binney, is the existence of foot-prints, in the 

 Lower Permian of Cumberland, similar to those of Corncockle Moor, in Dum- 

 fries-shire, where, from my own observations, including those of last year, 

 these Lower Permian sandstones have, I am convinced, a greater thickness 

 even than that which is assigned to them in Cumberland. 



Notwithstanding these discoveries, we have still to show the continuous ex- 

 istence of the Lower Red Sandstone of Shropshire, Worcestershire, and Staf- 

 fordshire, which I have classed as the lower member of the Permian rocks, and 

 to decide whether it be really such lower member only, or is to be regarded as 

 the equivalent of the whole Permian group, under differing mineral conditions. 

 With the extension of the Geological Survey this point will, doubtless, be satis- 

 factorily adjusted, and we shall then know to what part of the series we are to 

 attach the plant-bearing red beds of Coventry and Warwick, described as Per- 

 mian by Ramsay and his associates. We have also to show that, in its northern 

 course, the lower red sandstone of the central counties, with its calcareous con- 

 glomerates, graduates into the succession exhibited at Manchester, thence ex- 

 panding northwards. Already, however, we have learned that in our own 

 little England, which contains excellent normal as well as variable types of all 

 the palaeozoic deposits, there exists proofs that the Permian rocks, according 

 to the original definition of the same, present to the observer who examines 

 them to the west as well as to the east of the Penine chain, nearly as great 

 diversities of lithological structure, in this short distance, as those which dis- 

 tinguish the strata of the same age in Eastern Russia in Europe from the ori- 

 ginal types of the group in Saxony and other parts of Germany. 



Geological Survey and Government School of Mines, Mineral Statistics, and 

 Colonial Surveys. — As I preside for the first time over this Section since I was 

 placed at the head of the Geological Survey of Britain, I may be excused for 

 making an allusion to that national establishment, by stating that the public 

 now take a lively interest in it, as proved by a largely increased demand 1'or our 

 maps and their illustrations — a demand which will, I doubt not, be much aug- 

 mented by the translation at an early day of many of our field-surveyors from 

 the south-eastern and central parts of England, where they are now chiefiy 

 employed, to those northern districts where they will be instrumental in deve- 

 loping the superior mineral wealth of the region. 



The Government School of Mines, an offshoot of the Geological Survey, is 

 primarily intended to furnish miners, metallurgists, and geological surveyors 

 with the scientific training necessary for the successful pursuit and progressive 

 advancement of the calling which they respectively pursue; but at the same 

 time, the lectures and the laboratories are open to all those who seek instruction 

 in physical science for its own sake, or by reason of its important application 

 to manufactures and the arts. The experience of ten years has led the pro- 

 fessors to introduce various modifications into their original programme — with 

 the view of adapting the school as clearly as possible to the wants of those 

 two classes of students ; and at present, while a definite curriculum, with 

 special rewards for excellence is provided for those who desire to become 

 mining, metallurgical, and geological associates of the school ; every student 

 who attends a single course of lectures may by the new rules compete, in the 

 final examination, for the prizes which attach to it only. 



Throughout the whole period of the existence of the school, the professors 

 have given annual courses of evening lectures to working men, which are 



