198 



. After some more appropriate remarks, the health of the 

 Treasurer and Secretary was proposed, and Mr. Scarth made 

 some remarks on the recently discovered "Altar" stone, and stated 

 that his interpretation of the figures differed somewhat from that 

 of Mr. Sayce (vide Vol. vi., No. 1, p. 81). 



; The Rev. J. B. Medley, the Rector of Orchardleigh, being the 

 only one able to be present of those gentlemen from whom the 

 Club had received hospitality and assistance during their excur- 

 sions, facetiously returned thanks for his health in the character 

 of the country mouse visiting the town mouse. 



Afternoon Meetings. 



The attendance at these meetings has been encouraging, the 

 small room at the Institution on some occasions being so inconveni- 

 ently crowded as to induce the Club to migrate on one afternoon 

 to Christ Church Hall ; an experiment not entirely satisfactory 

 owing to its size and imperfect acoustic properties when only 

 partly filled. 



The afternoon of Wednesday, March 10th, was given up to 

 Geology and Botany ; the first paper was from Mr. Horace B. 

 Woodward, of the Geological Survey, on the "Geology of Brent 

 Knoll" (vide p. 125). Owing to the absence of sections, the struc- 

 ture of that remarkable hill, rising some 400ft. from the alluvial 

 flats of the Burnham level, has always been somewhat doubtful, 

 especially as regards its lower portion. Hitherto the sequence 

 of the beds has been, Inferior Oolite on the top, Midford Sands 

 next, then Upper Lias, followed by Middle Lias and Lower Lias 

 at the base. From recent discoveries made by Mr. Woodward 

 in 1885, he has now found out from fossil evidence that the 

 LoAver Lias has no existence at the base of the hill ; but that 

 the basal portion consists of Middle Lias Clays. His paper 

 then went on to show the bearing of this thickness of the Lias 

 upon the coal question to the south of the Mendips, and concluded 



