206 
up for the present generations of men that vast accumulation 
of mineral wealth that formed the foundation of the manu- 
facturing prosperity of this great country. He also 
found that his friend, Mr. Tute, was about to recall to 
his neighbours in this district that there was a time when, 
instead of enjoying the genial climate with which we were 
blessed in these days, this part of the world, in com- 
mon with others, was plunged in the cold and misery 
of the Grlacial period, and in a condition which, to 
us who were living on the earth now, it was difficult, 
except by an effort of the imagination, to realise; until 
at length, by the paper of Dr. Parsons, we were brought 
down to the period of Alluvial Deposits, in which we were 
reminded of the immediate results of those natural pro- 
cesses which were going on day by day under our eyes, 
in the times in which we lived. JSTow, surely, in that 
brief survey of the papers before them, and the varied sub- 
jects which it was proposed to discuss, and the vast extent 
of uncounted ages to which they referred, there was proof 
enough of the immense interest of the topics with which 
they especially dealt, and proof enough that in this neigh- 
bourhood, as in every other part of the world, there might 
be found ample employment for those who were able to make 
these studies the occupation of their lives ; and also ample, 
useful, and attractive employment for those who could only 
devote to them the leisure that their more pressing occupa- 
tions might leave to them. He rejoiced, therefore, to think 
that the Society had come to Ripon, and he could only hope 
that there might go forth from that room an account of the 
papers which were read which might stimulate many who 
were not present to devote themselves to those studies, and 
might enable them to derive from them that reasonable, that 
rational, and that intense enjoyment which was felt by all 
who devoted to them any portion of their time. With the 
