250 



rewm'ded by finding some pieces of Eoman pottery. Two of these "pit- 

 and-t\imp" excavations were ojDened by the Club, but without result 

 beyond finding stones which bore marks of fire upon their surface. The 

 probability is, that these dejiressions were used as temporary cooking- 

 places, the earth being thrown up to windwai'd, after a fashion that is 

 still prevalent among the natives of Hindostan. The presence of long 

 lines of earthwoi'k still plainly shew that the hill was at one time strongly 

 fortified, and the cooking-places may well have been the work of camp- 

 followers, probably of the period of the Roman occupation, from the 

 character of the pottery. 



From Rodboro' the j^arty visited the quarries at Minchinhampton, so 

 fully described by Dr. Lycett in his work oh the " Cotswold Hills." 



After descending the valley to Woodchester, several sections were 

 examined in the i-ail way-cuttings of the Nailsworth line, now in coui'se 

 of construction. 



The Secretary read a letter from Mr. John Jones, in Ulusti-ation of 

 an accompanying specimen of Fvlsus vesiculosus, which by its expansion 

 under heat had torn assunder during very low tide, a small piece of com- 

 pact stone on which it grew. Mr. Jones says, " It is readily conceivable 

 that in warm climates whei'e the rise and fall of the tide is considerable, 

 similar operations may take place upon an extensive scale. The decom- 

 position of rocks by vegetation of a low chai-acter is, of course, well 

 known, but the present instance serves to illustrate the action of a 

 disintegrating foi'ce, the existence of which is pi'obably little known." 



The Secretary likewise read a paper by Mr. Jones, in amplification 

 of Sir Charles Lyell's First Chapter on the "Antiquity of Man," 

 concluding as follows : — 



"1. That the great changes in the characteristic vegetation of the districts 

 referred to, have been effected solely by moditications of temperature, iu 

 great part produced by telluric oscillations. 



"2. That the laws regulating the periodical prevalence of certain forms of 

 vegetable life have been uniform in their operation at all times. 



"3. That the zones of vegetation above recognized, have always maintained 

 relations toward each other similar in kind to those which now exist between 

 them, and that on this supposition the difference of climate which character- 

 ised the periods indicated respectively by the prevalence of fir, oak, and 

 beech, may be roughly estimated from the difference between the number of 

 degrees of latitude which form the limits of the northern range of each, which 

 appears to be about four in each instance. 



"And lastl}^ That the lapse of time required for the changes traced, and the 

 natural operations involved in effecting them, far surpassed in duration the 

 scope of our most extended chronologies." 



