584 THE NATURAL HISTORY REVIEW. 



2. GrEOLOGiCAL SociETT. (Somerset House.) 

 May 2Wi, 1865. 



Tlie following communications were read : — 1. " Additional Ob- 

 servations on the Eaised Beach of Sangatte, with reference to the 

 date of the English Channel, and the presence of Loess in the Cliff- 

 section." By Joseph Prestwich, Esq., E.R.S., Treas. G-.S. — In his 

 paper on the Loess and Quaternary Beds of the North of Erance 

 and South-east of England, Mr. Prestwich expressed an opinion 

 that the break in the land between Erance and England was not the 

 result of the last geological change, but that the channel existed at 

 the period of the formation of the Low-level gravels of the Somme 

 and Thames Valleys, and probably at that of the High-level gravels. 

 During a recent visit to the Sangatte Eaised Beach, the author re- 

 cognized fragments of chert in the shingle and associated sands? 

 which he inferred w^ere derived from the Lower Cretaceous strata ; 

 associated with them were fragments from the Oolitic series of the 

 Boulonnais and two pebbles of red granite, probably from the Cotentin. 

 These facts seemed to the author to add much probability to the 

 existence of a channel open to the westward, and extending between 

 Erance and England, anterior to the Low- and possibly to the 

 High-level Valley-gravel period. Above the raised beach occurs a 

 mass of chalk- and flint-rubble, with beds of loam, from 20 to 80 feet 

 thick, and containing land-shells. Mr. Prestwich considered this 

 accumulation analogous to the Loess, which it resembles in general 

 character, while the shells found in it belong to species common in 

 that deposit, 



2. "On the Superficial Deposits of the Valley of the Med way, 

 with Itemarks on the Denudation of the "Weald." By C. Le Neve 

 Eorster, Esq., B.A., B.S.c, E.O.S., and William Topley, Esq., E.G.S., 

 of the Geological Survey of Great Britain. — In the first part of the 

 paper the authors gave a description of the superficial deposits of the 

 valley of the Medway. They showed that deposits of river-gravel 

 and brick-earth (loess) occur at various heights up to 300 feet above 

 the level of the river. A detailed account was given of the " pipes" 

 at Maidstone, where brick-earth (loess), containing land and fresh- 

 water shells and mammalian remains, has been let down into deep 

 cavities in the Kentish Eag, probably by the gradual dissolving away 



