WATFORD NATURAL HISTORY SOCraTY. lix 



Before the party separated it was generally agreed that, notwith- 

 standing the rain, a very agreeable and interesting day had been 

 spent ; and this having been mentioned as the last field meeting of 

 the season, at the solicitation of a lady member, another was pro- 

 jected, the members of the Luton Society suggesting a visit to 

 their neighbourhood. 



Field Meeting, 12th July, 1879. 



Chiltern Green, Luton. 



In response to an invitation from the Luton Antiquarian and 

 Natural History Society, Members of the Hertfordshire Natural 

 History Society assembled at Chiltorn Green Station at a few 

 minutes past three, and were there met by members of the Luton 

 Society, each Society being represented by from fifteen to twenty 

 members. 



Permission to walk along the line having been received, the 

 Dumhills railway-cuttings were first inspected. No sooner, how- 

 ever, was the station left, than rain began to fall, continuing to do 

 so more or less heavily during the remainder of the day. The fine 

 section of the Challi exposed in these cuttings was therefore 

 examined under rather adverse circumstances, the members neces- 

 sarily geologising under the shelter of their umbrellas. 



Mr. J. Saunders, of Luton, who has for many years made a study 

 of the geology of the neighbourhood, here acted as guide, pointing 

 out the chief characteristics of the diiferent beds in the Chalk. 

 The Upper Chalk, or chalk-with-flints, was first seen, the section 

 traversed being a descending one from south-east to north-west, 

 and that being the highest bed exposed. Next in succession was 

 seen the chalk-rock, here about two feet in thickness, and having 

 numerous characteristic fossils ; while underlying it the Lower 

 Chalk, or chalk- without- flints, was the lowest bed here exposed. 



Before leaving the cutting Mr. Saunders gave a brief general 

 account of the geology of the neighbourhood, pointing out that 

 the hill on the opposite side of the valley in which Luton is 

 situated presented an exactly similar and parallel section to this, 

 showing that the valley was one of denudation, the strata with 

 which it was at one time filled up having been removed by the 

 denuding action of rain, rivers, or glaciers. 



Turning off the railway-line into the fields a slight elevation 

 was ascended on the right, and a path taken through a wood to the 

 ruins of Someries Castle. Here Mr. William Austin read extracts 

 from a paper, recently read by Mr. Thomas Hodgkinson before the 

 Luton Society, giving a history of the Manor of Someries from the 

 Norman Conquest to the eighteenth century, the Castle, which now 

 forms a picturesque ruin, being stated to have been erected in the 

 year 1448. 



A chalk-pit was next visited, at one part of which numerous 

 fissures filled with sand were noticed, some having a transverse 



