14 



each Club to fix a meeting, say onoe in a season, on tlie confines of their counties, 

 where tliey could become acquainted with each other, and interchange the fruits 

 of their enquiries. Tiiey, as Herefordshire men, had been that day, strictly 

 speaking, poaching upon another manor, since they had been into Gloucester- 

 shire ; and he would suggest that next season a meeting be appointed for May 

 Hill, or some other spot near the border, where the Cotteswold Club could meet 

 them. (Applause). 



Tlie Rev. P. B. Brodie returned thanks, expressing his approval of Mr. 

 Strickland's suggestion. 



The Chairman then called upon the Hon. Secretary to read the papers which 

 had been prepared. The first of those read was 



THE GEOLOGICAL REPORT OF THE PROCEEDINGS AT THE 

 FIRST EXCURSION OF THE CLUB, 



On Tdksdat, Mat, 18th, 1852, by M. J. Scobie, F.G.S. 



The Rev. Reginald P. Hill, of Cradley, exhibited a specimen of Caradoc 

 Sandstone, containing the characteristic fossils curiously altered by heat. This 

 specimen was from the Malvern Hills, where the Caradoc formations are at 

 various points associated with trappean rocks, which, at a very early period, must 

 have been erupted in a state of fusion, altering the strata through which the 

 volcanic matter had forced a passage. Here it may not be unworthy of remark 

 that there is no instance throughout the district of a similar metamorphosis 

 having taken place from contact with syenite, the foundation rock of the Malvern 

 range. We may hence justly infer that the latter was consolidated previous to 

 the deposition of the superincumbent sedimentary strata, under the pressure of 

 an ocean of considerable depth. 



A collection of Mammalian remains discovered by Mr. Ballard, of Hereford, 

 during the formation of the Herefordshire Canal, in gravels of various kinds, was 

 then submitted for examination. It has been a subject for remark that our 

 superficial deposits are peculiarly destitute of Fossil Mammalian remains, and it is 

 therefore gratifying that our first Meeting should have been instrumental in 

 throwing some light upon a subject which has hitherto remained in obscurity. 

 The elucidation of these gravels presents an ample field for the researches of an 

 intelligent geologist, and it is to be hoped that they will receive that amount of 

 attention at the hands of the Club which their importance demands. It is only 

 by a careful examination of their constituents, fossil contents, manner of distri- 

 bution, and relative elevations, that the periods of their deposition and origin can 

 be ascertained. 



Sir Roderick Murchison divides the gravels of England into two classes. 

 The first includes all those coarse and sometimes far-transported fragments to 

 which some geologists apply the word " diluvium, " but which, to avoid miscon- 

 struction, he designates drift ; and this drift he subdivides into three distinct 



