228 
MARQUIS OF R1PON : ADDRESS. 
means of cultivating and developing the human intellect. Individ- 
ual tastes and personal circumstances must ev T er determine, to a 
very great extent, the direction of a man's studies. He was not in 
the least inclined to quarrel with the special direction which these 
studies might take in any case. The thing of real importance for 
the man and for the nation, was, that they should, whatever might 
be their character, be pursued for high motives and made subser- 
vient to noble ends. 
ON THE DISTRIBUTION OF FOSSIL FISHES IN THE YORKSHIRE 
COAL FIELDS. BY JAMES W. DAVIS, F.S.A., F.G.S.. ETC. 
The Coal measures of the West Eiding of Yorkshire, until 
recently have received little attention so far as their palaeontology 
is concerned. Their stratigraphical features have been worked out 
and developed most carefully, not only by private enterprise for 
commercial and industrial purposes, but also in a more thorough 
and scientific manner by the officers of the Geological Survey. 
The Memoir on the Yorkshire Coal field, recently completed by 
Prof. Green (now of the Yorkshire College) and his associates, will 
perhaps take rank as the most elaborate ami important work 
issued by the Survey. The value of this intricate and detailed 
accumulation of facts cannot be over-estimated, and to the practical 
miner, or the more philosophical geologist or palceontologist, the 
book must be one of constant use and reference. Already, the 
workings in this coal field have been extended considerably under 
the Permian limestone, which in the earlier days of geological 
science was thought to be its eastern limit, and pits sunk to the 
depth of over 1,500 feet have proved that the Silkstone coal exists 
over a large area, where only the Barn si ey coal has previously been 
got. Indeed, the only eastern limit to the Yorkshire coal field will 
be caused by the great depth at which the coal lies buried. To the 
north and west the coal field is encircled by the older beds of the 
Millstone Grit series. The latter, forced up during a post-carbon- 
iferous epoch, form the elevated Penine chain of hills which now 
separates the once-united Yorkshire and Lancashire coal fields. 
