158 
THE GEOLOrxIST. 
deposits and the Old Red are finely displayed ; and Mr. Symonds, P.G.S., the 
president of the Malvern Clnb, here delivered an oration on the position of the 
beds and their fossil contents. 
Nowhere in the world was there, he thought, such a fine exhibition of 
passage-beds" as here ; and they incontestibly proved that there was a gra- 
dual transition from the Upper Ludlow Rocks of the Silurian system to the 
Old Red, and no sudden break with the entire destruction of organic life in 
the more ancient system, as had been formerly supposed. Mr. Symonds then 
remarked on the peculiar bucklered fish whose remains were embedded in the 
grey and red marls of this section, particularly the Auchenaspis ; portions had 
also been detected of the Plectodus, CepJialaspis, Ptemspis and Onchus. These 
were all now extinct, and their only analogies were to be found in some of the 
rivers and lakes of North America. 
Mr. Lees, the Yice-President, delivered the annual address, and took a 
review of the chief books on scientific subjects which had been published during 
the past year, remarking on the great tendency of the authors to theorise 
instead of,' like Owen and Agassiz, carefully arguing only from undoubted facts. 
The former philosophical observer had declared that the result of his palseon- 
tological studies proved the continued exertion of creative energy from the 
earliest to the latest strata that had yielded their osseous remains to his view ; 
but that all past races of animals belonged to the divisions now known to 
naturalists : nor was there any reason to believe that anything would be dis- 
covered that was different in general technical character to what naturalists 
were at present acquainted with. 
Mr. Lees then took a searching review of Darwin's recent volume on " The 
the Origin of Species," and pointed out what he considered to be the fallacy of 
that writer's views, which he considered were merely a variation of the exploded 
theory of Lamarck, who had supposed the origin of every organic being in laud 
and water from two nomadic forms. No practical benefit was gained by 
supposing that all existing species w"ere varieties of what had pre-existed ; and 
that minute variation now appearing and accumulating would in like manner, 
in a long period of time, change everything again. 
Li conclusion, Mr. Lees strongly urged the avoidance of all fanciful theory, 
and steadily keeping within the bounds of truthful observation. If they might 
not go so far as St. Piesse, as to say that he who had not studied nature knew 
not what real enjoyment was, yet they would fully agree with Humboldt that in 
the contemplation of her grandeur and freedom existed the purest delight that 
a divine intelligence had designed for the enjoyment of man. 
At this meeting the Rev. R. R. Hill was elected Honorary Secretary of the 
IMalvern Field Club, in the place of Mr. Burrow, who had filled the office since 
the formation of the club. 
The next meeting was on September 21, at the Plough Inn, at Longdon. 
The members proceeded by Queenhill Church and through the grounds of Pale 
Court to Samhill, a Lias outlier, in the valley of New Red Sandstone, which 
in this district stretches along the line of the Malvern straits. Hence the club 
returned through the Pale Court gardens, by permission of Mr. DowderweU, 
to Mr. Stower at Chamber's Court where Captain Guise delivered an instruc- 
tive addi'ess. He was foUowed by Dr. Lankester, the well-known lecturer, on 
the Darwinian theory. 
The thii-d and last meeting was held at Malvern Hills, on October 9th. The 
President, and another gentleman, accompanied by Mr. Allan Lambert, one of the 
engineers on the Worcester and Hereford Railway went through the tunnel, but 
their account of the wet and dirt to be encountered deterred the other members 
from descending, a move was therefore made through the cutting of the Wych 
to the shaft on the western side of the hills, where large heaps of " spoil" had 
