vi. 
PREFACE. 
^vitli the advance of scientific knowledge there have been well-marked 
social changes. The views now held of natural phenomena and the 
place occupied by man in relation to those phenomena exhibit a 
greatly extended field, and it cannot be denied that the science to 
which this Society is especially devoted, has exercised no small 
influence in the tendency of h\unan thought and speculation during 
the past half century. 
In the preparation of the chapters of this work, the plan adopted 
has been to adhere to a chronological sequence of events, as far as 
possible, when treating of its general autonomy or its minor papers 
and works. But having regard to the great branches of its work it 
has been found advisable, and it is hoped that the result will prove 
also, more instructive, to arrange the material so as to form as far as 
possible a definite history of the growth of the scientific opinion as 
based from time to time on the discoveries relating to this special 
subject. Examples of this may be seen in the chapters relating to 
the investigation of the series of rocks composing the Yorkshire Coal- 
field. The horizontal and vertical sections made by members of the 
Society, and the correlation of the several beds of workable coal, pre- 
ceded the labours of the Geological Survey, and were of the greatest 
importance ; they afforded no small aid to the Survey and served as 
a basis on which the more elaborate and finished superstructure was 
raised, resulting in the great memoir on the Yorkshire Coal-field 
issued in 1878. 
A second example may be cited in the chapter relating the 
results of the investigations in the domain of man's existence in the 
country before the historic period. The question of the antiquity of 
man has been largely discussed on d?.ta obtained from Yorkshire 
Caves ; the probability that man existed coeval with the elephant, 
the rhinoceros, the Irish elk and the reindeer, and the relation of all 
of them to the glacial period are matters of deep interest. The 
accounts of diggings in the Barrows scattered over the county are 
amongst the earliest and most interesting in the country. The ex- 
ploration of the Kirkdale Cave by Dean Buckland and the deductions 
resulting from a study of its contents have served as a model for more 
recent investigation. Latterly the discovery of Kitchen-middens near 
