116 "W. WHITAKEK — ADDRESS : GEOLOGICAL 



this has been duly noticed in an account of our excursion to the 

 Bourne. I ventured also to object to the Lea being under 

 a separate Conservancy from the Thames, the former river being 

 a tributary of the latter. * 



1898. 



Dr. Irving's paper " On the Geology of tbe Stort Valley . . . 

 with Special Reference to the Plateau Gravels " adds to and 

 amplifies the notice already mentioned. He describes the Ancient 

 Stort Channel, by means of well- sections showing considerable 

 depth to the Chalk, with details of a new well. The stratified 

 high-level gravels are described and their origin is referred to 

 rivers. The junction-plane of the Chalk and the Tertiaries is 

 treated of, and it is inferred that the pudding-stones may be the 

 remains of Bagshot Pebble Beds, though why, in this district, 

 they should not (partly, at all events) be referred to the Beading 

 Beds, I do not see.f 



Eetuming to his subject of 1896, Mr. A. E. Salter treats of 

 " Pebbly and other Gravels in Southern England," and refers to 

 those of the Hitchin and Bishop's Stortford Gaps. | 



An excursion to Ayot Green and Hatfield Hyde will presumably 

 have some notice in our Proceedings, as a certain J. Hopkinson 

 was one of its directors, and therefore one may pass it by. § 



In a paper " On some High-level Gravels in Berkshire and 

 Oxfordshire," Mr. 0. A. Shrtjbsole has gone somewhat beyond 

 those counties. He gives the composition of a gravel at Merrill 

 Hill, Hatfield, which consists mainly of flint -pebbles and of 

 quartz-pebbles, and which he classes with his Quartzose Gravel. || 



Some " Memoranda chiefly on the Drift Deposits," by the late 

 Sir J. Prestwich, contain short references to the Mimms Swallow- 

 holes (1855), to Drift at Hitchin (1850), and to sections near 

 Bushey and Aldenham (1851), from the note-books of that great 

 geologist. ^ 



1898, 9. 



' The Builder ' has started a set of articles on " Water Supply 



from the Chalk," of which two have appeared.** The first of these 



is of a general character, but refers to Hertfordshire. The second 



is more especially concerned with our county, and I cannot forbear 



* ' Trans. San. Inst.,' vol. xviii, pp. 305, 312. 

 t ' Proc. Geol. Assoc.,' vol. xv, pt. 6, pp. 224-237. 

 X Ibid., pt. 7, p. 274. 

 ] Ibid., pt. 8, pp. 308-310. 

 II ' Quart. Joiiru. Geol. Soe.,' vol. liv, p. 588. 



H Edited by H. B. Woodward, ' Geol. Mag.,' dec. iv, vol. v, pp. 408, 409. 

 ** Vol. Ixxv (1898), pp. 545-547 ; vol. Ixxvi (1899), pp. 29-36. 



