36 
The Rules of the Society, -Nvhich were passed at the commence- 
ment, having been found unsuitable to its present condition, have 
been carefully revised, and will be submitted for the approval of 
the Members in the course of the present Meeting. 
The extensive cuttings carried on by the Railway Companies 
have afforded opportunities of collecting and recording Geological 
information which have not been lost sight of. By the liberality 
of the Directors of the North Midland Railway, a large party of 
the Members were enabled to inspect the whole of that line ; 
and by the kindness of Mr. Swanwick, the Report of the Com- 
mittee, which will be presented to day, is illustrated by a 
beautiful section. The invitation also of the Manchester Society 
to execute a section across this coalfield, with a view to a com- 
parison with that of Lancashire, has been the subject of much 
deliberation, and though it has not been deemed advisable that 
the sections, as was first proposed, should start from a common 
point, yet a line has been chosen which will exhibit a favourable 
view of the Yorkshire Coal Measures, and the work having been 
undertaken by different Members of the Society will shortly be 
commenced. 
The Council have long been anxious to place in the hands 
of each Member a permanent record of the papers that 
are read, and the discussions that take place. This most 
desirable object is in part accomplished by the publication of 
Reports ; but though, for the sake of economy, all explanatory 
drawings have been omitted, yet even in the present form the 
expense is greater than the funds of the Society are able to bear, 
and the Council are therefore reluctantly compelled to recommend 
that an annual charge for the Reports of 2s. 6d. should be made 
on each Member, in addition to the Subscription. 
Ifc will be unnecessary, in consequence of these reports, to give 
more than a very brief account of the papers that have been read. 
In the Geological department, Mr. Thorp has continued hig 
valuable contributions to local Geology by a comparison of the 
