PROCEEDINGS OF THE COTTESWOLD CLUB 95 



that rocks may be identified by the fossils they contain, 

 and on this basis he, in 181 5, pubHshed a map of the 

 strata of England and Wales. The correctness of his 

 system of classification has never been shaken, and is 

 now adopted throughout the world. For twenty years 

 after Smith's work was pubhshed, the rocks of May Hill, 

 a well-known Gloucestershire landmark, were given the 

 vague name of " Transition Rocks," the belief being that 

 they represented a period of the world's history which 

 was transitional between the time when rocks were laid 

 down all over the globe by chemical precipitation (a 

 theory, however, now proved to be in error), from a hot 

 ocean, and a time when conditions more like the present 

 existed. Sir R. Murchison had doubts about this so-called 

 " transition period," and he undertook, with the help of 

 Professor Sedgwick, to examine this great mass of rocks 

 with a view to their classification. In this he was entirely 

 successful, and he added another clearly defined epoch to 

 the geological succession of strata, and one, too, especially 

 interesting because of its great antiquity. As a name for 

 these rocks, Murchison selected the word Silurian, after 

 the name of the brave tribe which at one time occupied 

 the whole area of Gloucestershire, Monmouthshire and 

 South Wales lying to the west of the Severn ; and the 

 name is now adopted for all rocks of similar age the world 

 over. Little did Caractacus imagine that the name of his 

 tribe would be handed down to posterity by the name 

 given to some of the rocks of the land over which they 

 contested with such determination the advance of the 

 Romans. Though the Silurian rocks were named before 

 the Cotteswold Club was formed, yet the working out of 

 details of the various sub-divisions has been chiefly done 

 since, and many have been the interesting days spent by 

 the Cotteswold Club in the study of the Silurian rocks at 

 May Hill and other parts of the county. 



