450 



THE GEOLOGIST. 



HE3fATlTE-0EES. — "SiE, — Will you be good enough to inform me in your next 

 whether any work has been i)ublished on Hematite ores; and their whereabouts, 

 especially whether they occur at the base of the conglomerate. — Yours obediently, 

 R. F. Lascelles Jej^nee, Wenvoe." 



MiNEEAE Veins. — " Sir, — Will either you or any of your correspondents have 

 the kindness to inform me, why mineral veins, in general, contain more iron in 

 limestone than in siliceous strata ? — Yours, J. C." 



Geology op HuNTiNaDO^fSHiEE. — "Deae Sie, — Will you please to tell me 

 whether the geology of this county has ever been published, and if I can get a 

 map of it, correctly coloured according to its geology. I think it would add 

 greatly to the value of the Geologist if a short and clear account of the geology 

 of each county appeared in it from tune to time. — Yours &c., R. A. C, St. Ives, 

 Huntingdon." 



Geology oe Beidpoet, &c. — "Sie, — Could you favour me in your next 

 number with the names of any good spots within walking distance of Bridport, 

 Weymouth, Christchurch, or Chichester for obtaining characteristic fossils and 

 observing the structure of the country. Are there any " geological desiderata " 

 in these neighbourhoods to which attention should be more particularly directed ? — 

 A Studei^t, Hampstead." 



Oceanistic Theory, &c. — Mr. John Curry, Boltsburn, Darlington, — We are 

 much obliged for Mr. Curry's communication and his statement of the " Oceanistic 

 Theory," but at present decline to publish it,. as we should not be disposed to find 

 room for the discussion which would necessarily follow. 



Amateur Geologist's Associ/vtion. — The Editor of the Geologist has received 

 letters for Mr. Heyward, but cannot forward them, not knowing that gentleman's 

 address. 



BKITISH ASSOCIATIOIT MEETIJVTG. 



The 28th meeting of the British Association commenced at Leeds on the 22nd 

 ult., under the presidency of Professor Owen, and has been attended by 

 even a larger number of savans than are usually present at these gatherings. The 

 president's address is far too lengthy for insertion in full, but its interest is 

 such that we give an abstract of its principal topics. He commenced by referring 

 to the capacity God had given to man to discover and comprehend the law by 

 which his universe is governed, and man impelled by a healthy and natural 

 impulse to exercise the faculties by which that knowledge can be acquired ; and 

 thus the most important inductive researches, so far from being the wilful soar- 

 ings of speculative philosophy into almost forbidden mysteries, are commonly 

 the observations of men so placed by circumstances as to have the work 

 of investigation allotted to them as part of their daily duties. Great and mar- 

 vellous have been the results of such philosophical investigations, not only in 

 respect to the shape, motions, and solar relations of the earth, but also of its age 

 and its inhabitants. The mind strains to grasp the sum of past time in the age 

 of our globe, with an elfort like that by which it tries to realize the space dividing 

 its orbit ffom the fixed stars and nebulte. Yet during all those eras which have 

 passed since the Cambrian rocks were deposited, bearing the earliest recognizr^d 

 stamp of created life, it has been manifested through the interpreters of the 

 " writings on stone," that the earth was vivified by the sun's light and heat, fer- 

 tilized by refreshing showers, and v/ashed by tidal waves. 



At no period has the gift of life been monopolized by a few contemporary indi- 

 viduals tlu-ough a stagnant sameness of untold time ; but it has been handed over 

 from jviMUM'p.l iou to generation, and successively enjoyed by the myriads that con- 

 stitnto llu^ y|HH',i('^!. Through death the individual enjoys all the varying phases 

 of WW ; and not only individuals but species perish. Still, as death is balanced by 



