310 EEPORTS OF MEETINGS. 



GEOLOGICAL SECTION. 



February 11th, 1874. The first evening Meeting of this 

 Section was the Annual Meeting. The President and Hon. 

 Secretary were re-elected ; the accounts were passed, and from 

 the balance one guinea was presented to the Library Fund of the 

 parent Society. There were no other evening Meetings this year, 

 but the following out-door meetings during the summer took 

 place. 



April 17th, 1874. The first excursion of the Section was to 

 Aust Cliff. The party consisted of ten. From the New Passage 

 Station there is a walk of about 40 minutes along the Severn 

 embankment before the Aust Cliff is reached. This Cliff is a 

 prominent object for some miles down the river : it is the section 

 or river exposure of a large outlier of New Red Rhaetic and Lias 

 standing out boldly in the alluvial plain. The shores were 

 hunted for the well-known Ehaetic and "White Lias fossils, but 

 no fresh material was down, and the few blocks of Bone-bed seen 

 had already been picked over a few days previously. Though 

 not many fossils were found the Bone-bed was seen in situ : the 

 faults and celestine veins were also examined ; there is always 

 something interesting in this section to arrest attention; and 

 among other things which engaged attention was the apparently 

 sudden change from unfossiliferous green marls to the wonderful 

 Bone bed layer which lies next in succession ; again the alterna- 

 tion of green and red marls, the fitful oxidation of the iron which 

 causes these colours, will still give ground for study. Also the 



