S02 Geological Society. 



The author states that he was indebted to Mr. Greenough for the 

 first suggestion that the slate of Gloucestershire would prove to be 

 the equivalent of the slate of Stonesfield. 



The author, in alluding to the fossils of the great oolite, remarks 

 on the important changes which are effected by removing the Stones- 

 field slate from the forest marble to the bottom of the great oolite. 



Forest marble. — The Bradford clay, which separates the great oolite 

 from the forest marble in Wiltshire, was observed only in the most 

 southern part of Gloucestershire. Of the forest marble itself, the 

 survey afforded no new characters. It was found to consist of a thick 

 stratum of laminated shelly oolite, interposed between beds of sandy 

 clay, containing laminae of grit ; and to have, from Bath to near 

 Fairford, for its uppermost stratum, a deposit of loose sand, contain- 

 ing large masses of calcareous grit. 



Cornbra&h. — This formation consists, through nearly the whole of 

 its range, of a thin deposit of rubbly, hard, compact limestone ; but 

 in the neighbourhood of Malmsbury it is composed of thick strata of 

 crystalline limestone, alternating at their lower extremity with beds 

 of sand, and surmounted by a stratum of sandy clay, containing la- 

 minee of grit. 



The author, in conclusion, notices four faults which affect all the 

 strata from the lias to the forest marble : they occur at Stow-on-the- 

 Wold ; Clapton, near Bourton on-the- Water ; Brookhampton, near 

 Cheltenham ; and between Tetbury and Cirencester. 



January 9, 1833. — An Essay, entitled " Observations on Coal," 

 by W. Hiitton, Esq. F.G.S. was first read. 



The author was led to the observations contained in this essay by 

 pursuing the method of microscopic examination which has been so 

 successfully employed by Mr. Witham. On examining, with the mi- 

 croscope, one of the thin slices of coal in which Mr. Witham lately 

 discovered a distinct vegetable texture, the attention of the author 

 was excited by the remarkable appearance of several cells in that 

 part of the coal where the texture of the original plant could not be 

 distinguished. Tempted to extend the inquiry, he procured an exten- 

 sive series of slices, taken from the several varieties of coal found at 

 Newcastle and the contiguous district. 



The coal of the Newcastle district is considered by the author to be 

 of three kinds. The first, which is the greatest in quantity and the 

 best in quality, is the rich caking coal so generally esteemed ; the 

 second is Cannel or Parrot coal (Splent coal of the miners) ; and the 

 third, the slate coal of Jameson, consists of the two former, arranged 

 in thin alternate layers, and has, consequently, a slaty structure. In 

 these varieties of coal, even in samples taken indiscriminately, more 

 or less of the vegetable texture could always be discovered ; thus 

 affording the fullest evidence, if any such proof were wanting, of the 

 vegetable origin of coal. 



Each of these three kinds of coal, besides the fine distinct reticula- 

 tion of the original vegetable texture, exhibits other cells, which are 

 filled with a light wine-yellow-coloured matter, apparently of a bitu- 

 minous nature, and which is so volatile as to be entirely expelled by 



