K00llj0p^ Jlaturalists' JFi^ltt Club, 



June 22nd, 1880. 



'TITHE second Field Meeting of the year took place on Tuesday, the 22nd June. 

 *' I '^ The object of the Meeting was to examine the Drift Beds of the Severn 

 at Buildwas ; the Wenlock Shale and Limestone of the Silurian system, 

 as exhibited at Benthall Edge and the range of hills of which it forms a part ; and 

 lastly, on the kind invitation of Mr. G-eorge Maw, to visit the garden of Benthall 

 Hall, which is so justly celebrated for its great botanical interest. The journey 

 by way of Shrewsbury to Buildwas was long ; the day before was so very wet, and 

 the morning itself so cloudy, that the attendance was much smaller than was 

 anticipated. The President, Mr. Knight, was unavoidably absent, and his place 

 was supplied by Mr. J. G. Morris, the senior Vice-President in the field, sup- 

 ported by Dr. Bull, Mr. W. A. Swinburne, the Revs. J. Tedman, S. Thackwell, 

 J. E. Grasett, H. B. D. Marshall, and W. Bowell ; Messrs. T. Curley, Henry 

 Vevers, Jos. Carless, jun., T. C. Paris, James Davies, John Lambe, Charles 

 Eortey, T. D. Burlton, and Theophilus Lane. At Craven Arms, they were 

 joined by the Rev. J. D. La Touche, the energetic leader of the Caradoc Field 

 Club, with the Misses La Touche (2), and Messrs. Levi and lonides. 



Mr. Maw met the Club at Buildwas station, and led the way to the pits of 

 sand and gravel close at hand. 



THE BUILDWAS DRIFT BEDS 



are very well shown in section by the side of the railway. They consist of very 

 fine sand and shingle in stratified layers, and in the immediate neighbourhood 

 the whole beds present a very considerable thickness. A little below Buildwas, 

 as Mr. Maw pointed out, the broad valley of the Severn contracts suddenly, and 

 at the entrance of Coalbrook Dale the river breaks through great Silurian ranges 

 near its termination, with the Wenlock limestone escarpment of Lincoln Hill on 

 the east, and that of Benthall Edge on the west. These Drift Beds, from the 

 regular manner in which they were deposited and from their great thickness, 

 imply a very long period of submergence after the main features of the district 

 had taken the existing contour. The Severn valley was here filled up by a strati- 

 fied deposit of from 200 to 300 feet in thickness, and this deposit is now represented 

 by the rounded hill, called Strethill, in full view, and whose summit is 280 feet 

 above the river. The base and summit of this hill have these same clear water- 

 worn sands and gravels in horizontal strata, with a depth of some 60 feet in the 

 centre consisting of tough clay drift, almost unstratified, and containing fragments 



