56 Proceedings of the 



Teesdale, including Polygala depressa, P. austriaca, Tar. uliginoBa 

 Cystopteris alpina, and Viola arenaria. 



Evening Meeting, November 12th, 1880.— Mr. H. M. Wallis, of 

 Eeading, exhibited some bones from the peat and shell-marl of the River 

 Kennet. Mr. Wallis explained the quaternary deposits of the Thames 

 valley at Eeading, by a diagram on the black-board of an imaginary section, 

 howing the tertiary sands and clays of the Reading and Woolwich series 

 resting on the chalk, and capped by gravels through which the Rivers 

 Thames and Kennet have excavated their beds, and upon which consider- 

 able deposits of silt and peat have been made. In the gravel, bones of ox, 

 horse, and elephant have been sparingly met with, whilst in one pit upon 

 the Eedlands estate the trunk of a pine tree was found. In gravel, 80ft. 

 above the present river level, several flint implements of the shouldered 

 palasolithic type have been found by Dr. Stevens, of Eeading. During 

 excavations made in 1872, 1873, and 1874, in connection with the town 

 drainage, and again recently by the Gas Company, immense quantities of 

 bones have been taken from the bed of tlie Kennet, and from the silt and 

 shell-marl underlying the peat in the meadow adjoining the river. Many 

 tons of bones of various ages and degrees of interest have been upiturned — 

 some few are human ; others belong to the horse, hog, wild boar, beaver, 

 \Tolf, dog, fox, red and fallow deer, Bos primigenius. Bos longifrons, and 

 Bos taurus, and goat. These are associated with pottery of recent, and of 

 Roman, Saxon, British and medireval date, numerous implements worked of 

 bone, such as awls, shuttles, winders, and salmon gafifs, also a yoke made 

 of the antler of the stag, and some twenty or more species of fresh water 

 shells, all of existing species. Mr. Wallis showed a human humerus from 

 this deposit, also a very perfect bronze celt of an early type from the 

 neighbourhood of Eeading, and two flint implements (a hatchet and an 

 arrow head) from the gravel. • 



Evening Meeting, December 10th, 1880. Mr. Tyndall read a paper on 

 " The Eivers of Surrey," as follows : — 



In the following remarks upon the rivers of Surrey it will of course be 

 understood that the subject presents novery prominent cases of imp)ortance, 

 or of very marked interest, yet I believe that a few observations on the 

 subject may embrace some interesting points of detail, and it is to be 

 remembered that with the student of natural history points of detail are 

 really those affording matter for most attention and for agreeable reflection. 

 The casual observer hastily surveys a prospect from some commanding 

 eminence, or gives a passing glance at a beautiful flower, or hurriedly notices 

 the markings in a geological specimen, and is content therewith ; but the 

 student who takes the trouble to enter upon detail derives far more satis- 

 faction from his observations. He attains to a knowledge of the subject 

 ■which is engrafted permanently on the mind, the contemplation of which 



