Hi. 



The last meeting of the year was that appropriated to Fungus gather- 

 ing and the Fungus feast. Funguses were not so plentiful as usual, 

 owing to the excessively dry season, hut Dr. Bull was fortunate enough 

 to hit on a cluster of the Scleroderma geaster, a fungus new to Britain. 

 An excellent coloured illustration of it is given with the description 

 by C. E. Broome, Esq., F. L. S. At this meeting an interesting 

 paper on the discovery of Drifc in the Woolhope district was read by the Rev. 

 F. Mere wether — a paper which, I think, has hardly been appreciated as it de- 

 serves. The geological features of the Woolhope district have been made so 

 familiar to us ail, from the time when Sir Roderick Murchison explored them 

 down to the present day ; and the whole valley has been so thoroughly examined 

 by competent geologists from time to time, that anything new connected with it 

 cannot but excite our interest, but when we were told that every one of these 

 geologists, from Murchison downwards, is mistaken upon one important point 

 which has been repeatedly examined and strongly insisted on, I must confess to 

 a feeling of supiise. You are aware that it has hitherto been an accepted truth 

 that no Diift is to be found in or around the Woolhope valley, with the ex- 

 ception of that small quantity which is obvious to every one in entering through 

 the gorge at Mordiford. Mr. Merewether announced that this is far from being 

 the fact, and that he had found the Drift with its characteristic fossils in other 

 places. The Rev. P. B. Brodie fully confirmed his statements ; and being well 

 aware of my friend's habit of understating his case rather than overstating it, I 

 paid a visit of two days to him at Woolhope for the purpose of exploring the 

 district under his guidance in the confident expectation of finding the presence 

 of the Drift consi/icious in many other places, and I was not disappointed. The 

 original mass of Drift, so long supposed to be all that exists, is not one 

 hundredth part probably of that which I saw. The road from Mordiford to 

 Fownhope, with the except : on of a few breaks, passes almost entirely over the 

 Drift. The entire village of Fownhope itself is to all appearance built upon the 

 Drift, which may be 40 or 50 feet thick, or even more. And again there is a 

 valley, to the S. E. of Woolhope church, the bed of which is entirely formed of 

 drift, acres upon acres in extent, and of a depth no one can conjecture. The 

 strangest part of the case, however, is that Sir R. Murchison, while examining 

 the district, lodged at the Green Man Inn at Woolhope, and every morning as 

 he left th* door of the house had a broad section of the Drift staring him in 

 the face, yet he failed to recognise it. 



Another interesiing circumstance pointed out by Mr. Merewether is the 

 cropping out of the Llandovery Sandstone (which has been amply confirmed 

 since) at the Foulniire's Farm, on the S.E. of Woolhope church, showing that 

 this rock is not confined to the Haugh Wood dome, but extends in other direc- 

 tions, particularly in the direction of May Hill, where it again forms a dome 

 similar to that in the centre of the Woolhope district. I spent two days, as I 

 say, examining these new features, and I am sure that this valley, from which we 



