sKssroN 1899-1900. Ixix 



exposed in the otlier pit, showing about 70 feet of bluish-prey 

 Chalk Marl, the Tottenihoe Stone, and a few feet of the Lower 

 Chalk above it. The Director said that there was a considerable 

 ditference between the wliite marl immediately nbove the Cam])ridi;e 

 Greensaud and the bluish-j^rey marl here seen, that containing 

 little more than 25 per cent, of argillaceous matter and this nearly 

 50 per cent., but here it was rather more argillaceous than usual, 

 and it passed rapidly upwards into a more calcareous and less 

 argillaceous deposit. The Totternhoe Stone here, he said, consists 

 of two rough and sandy beds together about 12 feet thick, and is 

 not suitable for building purposes as is that at Totternhoe. The 

 distance from the Totternhoe Stone to the coprolite bed is 70 feet, 

 that being the thickness of the Chalk Marl, and above the Totternhoe 

 Stone is the zone of Jlolaster suhglohosm, at the base of the white 

 chalk, of which the rest of the Lower Chalk, up to the Melbourn 

 Rock, consists. At the upper end of the quarry was seen one of 

 the springs which are thrown out from the base of tbe Totternhoe 

 Stone, and it was sending forth a considerable volume of water. 



After a few fossils had been obtained from the Totternhoe Stone, 

 a field-path was taken past the Three Counties Asylum towards 

 Hitchin, and from the highest ground reached the Director pointed 

 out that the whole of the outcrop of the Cretaceous Series, from 

 the Lower Greensand to the Upper Chalk, was in view ; and 

 Mr. Whitaker remarked that the outcrop of the Gault in this 

 district was several miles in width, while in Surrey it was always 

 less, and sometimes much less, than a mile wide, owing to the 

 steeper dip of the beds in Surrey. 



Passing over Wilbury Hill, the old encampment attracted 

 attention just at the point where the Icknield Way crosses the 

 high road at a right angle, and below the camp towards the west 

 a few fossils were found in the Melbourn Hock, which here forms 

 the summit of the Lower Chalk. There is only a small exposure. 



After partaking of tea in Hitchin at the " Sun Inn," the fresh- 

 water or lacustrine deposit at The Folly, Hitchin Hill, was visited. 

 It is of Post- Glacial age, and contains, in its Palaeolithic flint- 

 implements, the earliest traces of man in the district. As this bed 

 has been fully described by Mr. Clement Peid in our ' Transactions ' 

 (Yol. X, p. 14), where a list of the numerous fossils which have 

 been obtained from it is given, it may here suffice merely to draw 

 attention to the fact, not alluded to by Mr. Peid, that all the plants 

 found in this deposit are either hygrophiles or water-plants, 

 showing that the condition of the country was very different on 

 the close of the Glacial epoch from what it is now, the soil and 

 climate now favouring xerophiles. Some gravel-pits near by 

 were also visited, drifted fossils and ice-borne rocks being found 

 in them. They are of Glacial age. 



The party dispersed at about 8 o'clock, some returning to Hitchin 

 for the train and others cycling home. It was a glorious evening, 

 and the three hours' ride to "Watford was a very enjoyable one. 



