"WATFOED NATURAL HISTOEY SOCIETY. lix 



Lobley pointed out how different formations are characterised by 

 the physical features and vegetation of the country, — the Chalk 

 usually forming rounded hills without trees, and frequently sheep 

 Avalks called "Downs"; the London Clay, broad valleys and 

 gently rising hills with oaks and elms as its principal trees ; and 

 the Bagshot Sands, broad heaths and barren plains. 



A very fine lime tree, about 100 feet high, was seen from this 

 tower, and it was noticed that while beeches were growing on the 

 gravels capping the hill, most of the trees around — situated on the 

 underlying London Clay — were oaks and elms. 



On leaving Mr. Tooke's grounds, a gravel-pit, on the opposite 

 side of the road from Pinner to Watford, was visited, and the 

 gravel was seen to be of glacial age. Some of the pebbles, but 

 not all, were rounded, and they were mostly of flint, but some 

 were quartzite and pebbles from the older rocks. Mr. Lobley 

 stated that there was none of this glacial gravel south of the 

 Thames ; the gravels in the Thames Valley being river-gravels — 

 newer than these — and that between the age of the gravels here 

 and those on Harrow Hill the Alps, Pyrenees, and Himalayas were 

 formed. 



Here the party took leave of Mr. and Mrs. Tooke, and soon 

 entered the Oxhey Woods, and in walking through the woods, in 

 several places pools of water were seen, some of considerable size, 

 showing that, retaining the water, there was clay under the bed of 

 pebble-gravel on which these woods are situated. 



The woods were gay with wild flowers, but there was little 

 time to devote to botany, and it was late in the day when Bushey 

 Station, where the party separated, was reached. 



Okbinary Meeting, 14th June, 1877. 

 Alfeed T. Brett, Esq., M.D., President, in the Chair. 



Mrs. George Brightwen, The Grove, Great Stanmore, was elected 

 a Member of the Society. 



The following communications were read : — 



1. A Letter from Mr. Robert Clutterbuck, F.G.S., to the Presi- 

 dent, on the Coprolite Beds at Hinxworth, !N"orth Herts ( Vide 

 p. 238). 



Mr. J. E. Littleboy said that he supposed every one knew there were extensive 

 coprolite beds near Chittenden. The quantity of coprolites got from them was 

 very considerable indeed, and the value was something like £60 per acre. A 

 little further on, in the hamlet of Standbridge, between Leighton and Dunstable, 

 there was a tract of land belonging to his brother, and he let it out for working 

 at £30 per acre. The value of the coprolite beds entirely depended on the depth 

 at which the coprolites were found. At Chittenden they were six or seven feet 

 deep, and at Standbridge rather deeper, and therefore the beds were not so 

 valuable. He should be very much interested to hear a few hypotheses as to 

 their origin. 



The President said that he must refer the matter to the Secretary. 



