24 



like elevation, yet the highest parts had also escaped. There had been no cases 

 of cholera in the Highlands ; along also what is called the backbone of England— 

 at Buxton, for instance, where he was staying at the time of the last visit of 

 cholera— there was not a case, while the towns lying right and left of the ridge 

 were being desolated by that disease. He believed that no place more than 600 

 feet abovs the sea level had been attacked by cholera ; and should it reach this 

 country again, he should feel quite safe at any place above that limit. Many parts 

 of Herefordshire are much more than 600 feet above the sea. It seemed to him, 

 too, that the cholera generally followed the course of great rivers ; now there 

 were no great rivers near Birmingham. 



In the course of the conversation which ensued, Dr. Gilliland and other 

 gentlemen remarked that a great part of Herefordshire was watered by the Wye, 

 but that its volume was too small to entitle it to be ranked as a "great river," 

 while the county was cut off by chains of hills from the valley of the much larger 

 river Severn. The exemption of the county from cholera might be due to the 

 combination of the geographical and the chemical causes which had been 

 named. 



The healths of the President and of the new members having been drunk 

 and suitably acknowledged, several papers were promised in future meetings. 

 Among these we may mention a paper on Carpology, or the structure and 

 arrangement of the fruit of plants, by Dr. Lingen, to whose kindness throughout 

 the day, in imparting information, the botanical members were greatly indebted. 

 From so profound a systematic botanist, on so important a branch of the science as 

 that now selected, an interesting paper may be anticipated. 



About 7 p.m. the party broke up, highly gratified and instructed by the 

 proceedings of the day. 



The next meeting was fixed to be held at Aymestrey, in the north-western 

 part of the county, in September next, when it is hoped Mr. Strickland and 

 others of the distinguished honorary members of the Club will be present. 



The Hon. Secretary, Mr. Scobie, having since visited the Woolhope Valley 

 with Mr. Otte, found the graptolites previously alluded to in abundance in a 

 newly opened quarry on the southern slope of Backbury Hill, a few hundred yards 

 to the east of Adam's rocks ; the formation is a calcareo-argillaceous finely com- 

 pacted deposit of Lower Ludlow shale, containing the exuviae of trilobites, and 

 the characteristic testacea of the period. They are of the species Graptolithus 

 Ludensis, a zoophyte allied to Pinnatula, or Sea-pen. The existence of this fossil 

 in the Silurian rocks of Woolhope is another interesting fact in the geology of 

 Herefordshire, brought to light by means of the Woolhope Club. 



