301 



From Bown Hill the party proceeded to the residence of Mr. Marling, 

 and partook of a luncheon most hospitably provided for them. 



The president and secretary accompanied Mr. Witchell to inspect 

 the excavations for a reservoir on the hill above Stroud, which have 

 yielded the materials from which our colleague Mr. John Jones has 

 constructed the very interesting paper since communicated to the Club. 



Wednesday, 17th June, 1863. In pursuance of the plan for the first 

 time acted upon in the previous year, of holding annually one of our 

 meetings outside the boundary of our own county, the Club met at 

 Dudley, in Warwickshire, a district remarkable for its natural beauty, 

 and geologically celebrated for the perfection of the fossil organisms, 

 yielded by the Silurian beds in its immediate neighboiu-hood. 



The members of the Severn Valley Field Club and of the Dudley 

 Geological Society mustered in considerable numbers, and acted through- 

 out the day as our guides to the points of greatest interest. The ground 

 traversed included the Aymestiy Limestone beds at Sedgley, and those 

 on Beacon Hill, the quarries at which latter locality yielded an abundant 

 supply of characteristic fossils, including Encrinurus va/riola/ris, a Trilobite 

 of some raiity. The Wenlock Limestone of Hurst and the Wren's Nest 

 were next examined, and the profusion of animal life in that remote 

 epoch, together with the exquisite state of preservation of the organic 

 remains, was well shown in some slabs of Wenlock Limestone exposed 

 on the side of the road leading to Tipton, across the end of the Wren's 

 Nest Hill. This latter dome of Silurian rock, one of the most remarkable 

 features of the neighbourhood, has been so admirably illustrated by Sir 

 Roderick Mxjrchison in his " SUuria," that it is only necessary to refer to 

 that work in order to learn all that can be sought for of its geological 

 structure. But those who would desire to apprehend its natural beauty, 

 and would enjoy the chequered effects of light and shade \mdemeath the 

 huge buttresses of rock, left for the support of the mountain-side after 

 the extraction of its extensively-quarried limestones, should visit the 

 Wren's Nest HUl on such a glorious day of summer as that which 

 smiled on the Cotteswold Club. 



The Castle Hill and ruins occupied the attention of the party during 

 the remainder of their ramble, and dinner at the Dudley Arms gave 

 fitting termination to a day most agreeably spent. 



After dinner Mr. John Jones read a very interesting paper on the 

 discovery by Mr. Witchell of flint implements of human manufacture, 

 associated with land and freshwater shells, in a sedimentary deposit upon 

 a hill above Stroud, which paper has since been published. Mr. Jones 



