PROCEEDINGS OF GEOLOGICAL SOCIETIES. 
169 
tissues may have disappeared in tliis 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 whicli I have observed lead me to believe tliat in the tiiin 
seams of the lower coal measures remains of Noeggeraikia and Lepidodeudron are 
more abundant than in tliose of the middle coal-measures.* In the upper coal- 
measures similar modifications may be expected. These dift'erences 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 Soutli 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 which 
the work of the Goverimient 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 weU known as accom])lished geologists. 
He believed 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, supei"ficial, and 
subterranean waters ; electro-magnetic observations on mineral bodies ; earth- 
q^uakes 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 thi-ow 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 efiectetl 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 tne science of mineralogy. Australia, 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 fi'equently 
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 coidd 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 Pdlophyton. 
VOL. II. 
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