XXIV PEOCEEDINGS, 



of these waves, however, were of irregular shape, being much 

 steeper on one side than on the other, even to verticality. The 

 Tertiary beds formed part of an outlier of which more would 

 be seen presently, and with regard to the Drift beds he could only 

 say that they were like beds which elsewhere had been classed 

 as belonging to the Glacial Drift. 



The line was left at the point where it intersects Beech Bottom, 

 and this shady glen was traversed as far as the road known as Soot 

 House Lane. Here the President remarked that much less was 

 known about this cutting than about the railway- cutting on which 

 Mr. Whitaker had discoursed. It was an earthwork of early 

 British origin, extending here for rather more than a mile in 

 a nearly straight (but slightly sinuous) line, but the portion 

 still preserved was probably only a small part of the original 

 earthwork, for here and there, in the same general direction, 

 traces of a similar earthwork were to be seen. The earth had 

 been thrown up on both sides of the trench, and the Chalk had 

 been excavated nearly down to the present plane of permanent 

 saturation, so that at one time, when this plane was higher than 

 it is now, water must have stood permanently in the fosse. There 

 was now water in it only after very wet seasons, except in one 

 or two ponds, and these were sometimes nearly dry.* 



The brickyards near Bernard's Heath were then visited, and 

 sections of the Tertiary outlier (Beading Beds) and overlying 

 Brick Earth, etc., were inspected. After crossing the heath, 

 which has been extensively dug for gravel, the gravel-pits on 

 Townsend Farm were entei'ed. These pits are of interest chiefly 

 as being one of the few spots where the Hertfordshire conglomerate 

 can be seen apparently in place. The bed was not very well 

 exposed, the section having been in a much better condition six 

 months ago ; but the conglomerate was traced for about twenty 

 feet in one direction and five feet in a direction perpendicular 

 to it. The puddingstone, Mr. Whitaker said, was made up of 

 flint-pebbles in a siliceous paste, the flints being a little harder 

 than the matrix, and that was probably the reason why the Bomano- 

 Britons used this material for their querns or grinding-mills. It is 

 known to occur in place only at two other spots in Hertfordshire, 

 both near lladlett Station, where its geological position is low in 

 the Reading Beds. 



From the gravel-pits the members and their friends proceeded 

 by way of Bernard's Heath and St. Peter's Church to The Grange, 

 where they were entertained by the President and Mrs. Hopkinson. 

 After tea, which was partaken of in the garden, collections of 

 fossils were examined in the library, comprising Cretaceous and 

 Eocene fossils collected by Mr. Hopkinson, and fossils collected by 

 Dr. Morison from the Chalk Kock of the Chiltem Green cutting on 

 the Midland llailway, a list of which has been published in the 

 Society's ' Transactions' (Vol. V, p. 199). 



* Mr. Samuel Sharp has endeavoured to show that it formed part of the 

 boundary of an ancient British town. (' Arch. Journal,' Vol. xxii, p. 299.) 



