8 
The rain began to come down in torrents, and the train 
was driven rapidly, over very bad gradients, to the discomfort 
of some of our nervous members, to Andoversford, where the 
one for Cheltenham was taken. ; 
The fourth Meeting was on August 20th, when a large 
number of members proceeded in a brake from Gloucester to 
Flaxley under the guidance of your President. 
Sir Thomas Crawley shewed the fine church, which was 
erected in 1856 at the expense of his relative, Mr Gibbs. Sir 
Gilbert Scott was the architect; and the reredos, by Mr 
Phillips, of London, was much admired. 
Within a short distance of the church, and close to the 
schools, occurs the remarkable upthrust of Silurian and Old 
Red Sandstone rocks, of which I gave the following description : 
The last time the Club visited this section was in July, 
1877, and in referring to the notice given of the meeting in 
our Proceedings, I was painfully reminded of the losses we 
have sustained in the death of some of our most distinguished 
workers who were then present. Our President, Sir William 
Guise, Mr Witchell, the Rev. W. 8. Symonds, and Dr Day are 
nowno more. To the Rev. W. S. Symonds we were indebted for 
an able and interesting address on the geology of the district of 
May Hill, the Forest of Dean, and Flaxley. He told us how 
years had passed away since he visited this area with Mr 
Strickland, conducting the old Silurian chief, Sir R. Murchison, 
to the rocks we are now looking upon, and he dwelt generally 
upon the history of the Paleozoic rocks and their fossils. Mr 
Symonds said the Silurians swarmed with invertebrate life: 
mollusca, crustacea, corals, and like forms of marine animals 
were abundant, and it was not until the time of the Lower 
Ludlow rocks that the scales and scutes of a ganoid fish 
gave proof of the existence of vertebrate life. The Old Red 
Sandstone proper of this country was probably laid down under 
fresh-water conditions; and the Devonian rocks were the marine 
equivalents of the fresh-water beds of the Old Red. Alluding 
to the carboniferous period, with its wonderful land vegetation, 
he remarked how, after that period had ceased, in Permian 
ee ee a 
