152 



wind blew very coldly on the top, and the President therefore took his seat a 

 little below the summit, on the south side, and the members soon began to 

 cluster around him like a swarm of bees. 



" It was very gratifying," he said, " to see so good an attendance at 

 this the first meeting of the year, and he congratulated all present on the fine 

 weather they had to enjoy such beautiful scenery. He trusted the recollection 

 of the day would be a bright spot in the memory of all present. The Rev. 

 Henry Griffichs, Dean of Queen's College, Liverpool, was to have been 

 present at this meeting, and he regretted very much that he had been 

 unavoidably prevented from coming. But though he could not come himself, 

 rather than disappoint the club, he had sat down to his desk — fancied himself 

 to be where we are now placed — and at one sitting wrote off this paper. 

 Though a written paper, therefore, it was fair to consider it an extempore 

 address. He felt called upon to say thus much in explanation, because Mr. 

 GriflBths hid thrown in here and there an apology, which he did not intend 

 to read. He put them in pareutheses for omission, and, to say the truth, he 

 did not think them in the least necessary." Dr. Bull then read the paper. 

 MYNYDD TROED, ERECONSHIRE, MAY 24, 1866. 



Gentlemen of the Wooihope Chib, — Our standpoint at the moment is one of the 

 upper beds of the so called Devonian series. Taken in mass, these rocks represent 

 the long period which elapsed between the deposition of the Silurian, seen to the N.-West 

 at Corn-y-Fan, and the mUlstone grit, to the S.S.-East, on the hills of Llangynider. 



In other parts of the kingdom they form a succession of hard calcareous or slaty 

 rocks, of nearly all the colours in the rainbow, and abounding in fossil shells and corals. 

 Here, they are however, best known as constituting the Old Red Sandstone System, of 

 which the following subdivisiDns are commonly accepted by geologists. 



On passing out of the Ludlow rock we come to a marked change, not less in the 

 lithological character of strata than in the general cast of their organic contents. 

 Ordinarily, however, there is no absolute break, but a rapid transition, so rapid as to be 

 instantly felt, yet so gradual as often to render it extremely difficult to draw the exact 

 line of demarcation. 



First then, come the tile stones : consisting of finely laminated, hard, reddish or 

 greenish micaceous sandstone, which readily splits into flags, with occasional beds of a 

 dull red shale. Magnificent sections may be seen in the gorge of the Teme, and 

 especially in the valley of Cwm Dwr, near Llandovery. The latter is sometimes called 

 the Thermopyla3 of South Wales, and is celebrated alike for its beauty and its historical 

 associations. Perched near the top, is a Uttle Dissenting chapel, built over the dividing 

 line : the pulpit in one age, and the end gallery in another, separated by a gulph of 

 unnumbered centuries ! The rock beneath is remarkably full of shells, with, it is said 

 (but I have never found any), occasional examples of Dipterus and Onchus. 



Over the tile stones appeals the cobnsionb, consisting of red and green argillaceous 

 and spotted marls, with courses of concretionary, impure limestone, mottled red and 

 green. Splendid sections may be seen at Llanstephan, near Hay, and in the valley of the 

 Usk, near Abergavenny. The Hereford and Newport Railway gives the traveller a 

 passing gUmpse of several very fine cuttings. Its characteristic fossils include the well- 

 known Cephalaspis. Its suiface is characterised by numerous circular depressions. Let 

 us suppose a walk from Llanfihangel to Llanthony Abbey. On the way, your old guide 

 (mind, he must be old, the young ones are all growing so dreadfully prosaic), will 



