224 



Woolljopt naturalists' iklti Club. 



Third Field Meeting, Tuesday, August i7th, 1858. 



USK. 



The Club held its Third and last Field Meeting for the season at Usk, on 

 Tuesday, the 17th. The following members and their friends were present:— 

 The President, Dr. Bevan ; Professor Melville, J. C. Salter, Esq., Rev. W. S. 

 Symonds, Mr. Lingwood, Mr. Bodenham, Rev. J. F. Crouch, Mr. Lightbody, 

 Rev. J. D. La Touche, Captain Symonds, Mr. Beddoe, Mr. Cocking, Mr. Curley, 

 Mr. Marston, Mr. Thompson, Mr. Purchas, Rev. C. Smith, Mr. Smith, Mr. Suter. 



The intended excursion lay between the Little Mill Junction, on the Newport, 

 Abergavenny, and Hereford Railway, and the town of Usk, but, at an early hour 

 in the morning, rain commenced to fall in torrents, and as every indication existed 

 of a thoroughly wet day, the party proceeded direct by railway to Usk. 



At the Salmon Hotel, the usual business having been transacted, Professor 

 Melville favoured the Club with an interesting lecture on the Pateozoic rocks. 



After having in a very clear, though succinct manner, explained their charac- 

 teristic features, composition and sequence, he proceeded to say that the subject 

 of Conglomerates having occupied his attention for some time, conclusions had 

 been forced upon his mind respecting their origin, which were gradually forcing 

 themselves likewise on the minds of all practical geologists. He would not say 

 that his interpretation of the phenomena was absolutely the true one. Anxious 

 only correctly to read the lessons that nature taught, he was willing to be con- 

 vinced if in error. 



Up to a very late period he was a firm adherent of what might be called the 

 Lyellian School of Physical Geology, i.e., he thought that all the great changes 

 which had taken place in the earth's crust, such as the upheaval of mountain 

 chains, &c., &c., were due to forces which had been exerted slowly and unre- 

 mittingly from the beginning of time, and which continued to the present in 

 gradual operation. His observations, however, had led him to regard the 

 present period as a period of absolute repose ; he thought that the earthquakes 

 and volcanoes, upon the existence of which so much stress had been laid, pro- 

 duced little or only local effects, and that strictly speaking they were the con- 

 comitants of a period of quiescence, and not of disturbance. 



The Conglomerate beds interspersed amongst the sedimentary rocks would, 

 he thought, be found always to indicate violent and unusual disturbance of the 

 earth's crust at the time of their deposition ; whenever, therefore, such appeared 



