PROCEEDINGS 
OF THE 
GEOLOGICAL AND POLYTECHNIC SOCIETY 
©f tfjg OTest Etomo; of gottafjire, 
AT THE FIFTY-FOURTH MEETING, HELD IN THE 
MUSIC SALOON, WAKEFIELD, ON WEDNESDAY, APRIL 18TH, 1860, 
AT TWELVE O'CLOCK AT NOON. 
Henry Briggs, Esq., in the Chair. 
The Chairman, in commencing the proceedings, said 
the Society had been established now for some twenty - 
five years, he having been one of those who proposed it, 
and that in the town of Wakefield. The original object 
of the Society was to enable the coalmasters of the West 
Riding to meet together, and to compare notes with 
each other, in order that they might identify the dif- 
ferent coal beds in the West Biding, and see in what 
manner they could be most successfully worked. It had 
been deemed right, however, to extend its operations so 
that it would embrace all inquiries of a useful nature ; 
and, therefore, it had now become the Geological and 
Polytechnic Society. 
