296 
as to the Barnsley district. If, however, every worker of 
coal, and those who have extensive tracts of mineral pro- 
perty, were to send to the Society's Museum, at Wake- 
field, specimens of fossils discovered in their collieries and 
estates, labelled with a particular description of the strata in 
which they were found, they might probably arrive at a 
solution of the problem which the noble lord had proposed ; 
and not only would this important question be truly solved, 
but we should be able to ascertain if there be any fixed 
sequence in the depositions of these fossils — if certain plants 
always accompany certain shells — if fish are found in a per- 
fect state only when the strata contain no entoraostraca — and 
we should further be able to state the nature of the strata in 
which the various kinds of fossils are found ; for he was inclined 
to think that the nature of the strata is in some way connected 
with the species of fossil found in it. Having thus related the 
state in which this interesting question now stands, it is hoped 
that the friends of the society will exert themselves, and fol- 
low the example of the noble President, in contributing 
largely to the present collection in the museum. 
Mr. Wallen, F.S.A., of Huddersfield, read the follow- 
ing paper : — 
AN ELUCIDATION OF THE GEOMETRICAL PRINCIPLES OF 
GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE. BY WM. WALLEN, ESQ., F.S.A., 
ARCHITECT, HUDDERSFIELD.* 
Architecture, as the eldest sister of the arts, naturally 
claims attention from the members of a Polytechnic Society. 
It has ministered alike to the necessities, the comforts, and 
the luxuries of mankind. 
The architectural remains of the nations of antiquity 
* Mr. Wallen is about to publish a work fully elucidating the principles of 
Gothic architecture. Subscribers' names to be forwarded to West- Parade, 
Huddersfield. 
