watford natural history society. 11 



Ordinary Meeting, 12th June, 1879. 

 J. GwYX Jeffreys, Esq., LL.D., F.R.S., President, ia the Chair. 



Mr. Robert Barclay, High Leigh, Hoddesdon ; Mr. Arthur 

 Ernest Gibbs, Cumberland lload, St. Albans ; Mr. "William Odell, 

 Castle Street, Hertford ; and Mr. William Wickham, High Street, 

 "Ware, were elected Members of the Society. 



Eobert Etheridge, E.R.S., F.R.S.E., E.G.S., Paleontologist to 

 the Geological Survey of Great Britain ; and James Edward 

 Harting, F.L.S., E.Z.S., Member of the British Ornithologists' 

 Union, Editor of the ' Zoologist,' etc., were elected Honorary 

 Members. 



The following communications were read : — 



1. "The Temperature of Thirty Summers and Thirty Winters 

 at Hitchin." By William Lucas. {Vide p. 250.) 



2. " The Recent Discovery of Silurian Rocks in Hertfordshire, 

 and their Relation to the "Water-bearing Strata of the London 

 Basin." By John Hopkinson, F.L.S., F.G.S., etc., Hon. Sec. 

 {Fide -p. 241.) 



Mr. Littleboy said that the question of water-supply was a very interesting 

 and important one. The principal matter was whether these deep borings would 

 rob the springs, and so lower the level of the water as to affect the supply of the 

 rivers. He, however, understood that there was an unfailing supply of water in 

 the Chalk. When Rlessrs. Meux's boring reached the Lower Chalk, was the 

 supply great? He saw by Mr. Hopkinson's diagram that a thin layer of the 

 Lower Greensand ran under the boring. When that was reached did the supply 

 increase ? 



Mr. Hopkinson explained that in the Chalk there were large, more or less 

 vertical, fissures full of water, and also underground rivers ; but when they 

 reached the Chalk Marl, which was a slightly argillaceous deposit, they missed 

 these, and therefore there was no great accession of water on reaching the lowest 

 beds of the Chalk. The effect of the borings was to lower the underground 

 reservoirs. Instead of the water-level being horizontal, its siu'face was in the 

 form of curves, the apex of each curve or system of curves being midway between 

 the various outlets, towards which there was a gradual lowering of what had 

 been termed the " plane of saturation," whether these outlets were natural ones 

 as river-courses or springs at the outcrops of the water-bearing strata, or were 

 artificially caused by borings or well-sinkings. The division of the Lower 

 Greensand met with at Messrs. Meux's was a hard impervious rock, the permeable 

 sands being absent ; and therefore there was no increase in the supply of water. 



3. " On a Boulder now in the Garden of the Royston Institute." 

 By H. George Fordham, F.G.S. ( Vide p. 249.) 



4. Extract of a letter from the Rev. J. C. Clutterbuck, M.A., 

 to Dr. Brett, giving notes on a section at the Oxhey Cutting, 

 "Watford, presented to the Society by him. ( Tide p. 250.) 



5. Extract of a letter from the Rev. R. H. Webb, M.A., to the 

 Secretary, giving miscellaneous botanical notes. ( Vide p. 250.) 



6. A letter from Mr. Abel S. H. Smith, "Watton, to the Secretary, 

 on birds observed in his neighbourhood.'*'' 



* The infoi-mation in this letter will be incorporated in ]\Ir. Littleboy's "Notes 

 on Birds observed in 1879." 



