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this county has taken a prominent lead ; and under the title 

 "Gloucestershire Illustrations — Machin and Madeira" he 

 published " an attempt to investigate the truth of the romantic 

 and interesting discovery of that island" in 1344 by Robert a 

 Mackin, Machin or Machen, a Gloucestershire man in the Cog 

 La Welyfare, of Oldbury-on-Severn. He also published a paper 

 on " Languages — Our Vulgar Tongue " — " Conjectures on the 

 Patriarch Job " — ".^sop's Fables Criticised," and other works. 



THE ANNUAL MEETING 



of the Club was held at the Spread Eagle Hotel, Gloucester, on 

 Thursday, 24th February, 1876. 



The President read his Annual Address, after which the 

 customary election of officers for the ensuing year was made, 

 when you were pleased to testify your confidence in the previous 

 office-holders by re-electing them. 



The Field Meetings for the season were then fixed, after 

 which, Dr. Smtthe of Churchdown read a paper entitled " The 

 Spinatus Beds (Middle Lias) of the North Cotteswolds." 



It was illustrated by a coloured section of the zone of Am : 

 Spinatus, and by various tables of the fossils proper to this sub- 

 division. Under the several headings of Lithology, Palasontology, 

 etc., the author showed with much elaborate detail that the 

 correct position of these beds, is immediately above, yet 

 connected with the ' Margaritatus ' division of the Marlstone, 

 and that it has often been confused with that zone, from which 

 it is altogether distinct lithologically, and separable even in 

 respect of life conditions. 



Beginning with the beds at Churchdown Hill, which he has 

 worked for many years, the author traces the ' Spinatus ' beds 

 throughout England to the North-East coast, then through 

 Ilmiuster to the South-West at Golden Cap, where they present 

 a thickness of about 70 feet. Concealed from observation by 

 the Channel, they are only feebly developed in Normandy, the 

 Cote d' Or, Provence, and the Rhone district, owing to physical 

 causes which prevented the accumulation of liassic sediments as 



