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erect with underclay all round it and without any traces of its 

 root or Stigmaria attached. How then is this to be accounted 

 for ? Has the trunk sunk through the surrounding underclay when 

 it was in a moist m udy condition 1 Such was Mr. Hippisley's 

 opinion. After an inspection of the method of woiking out the 

 clays and coal seams, the members returned to the upper air, not 

 a few extremely glad that they had come safe to ground without 

 damage to aught save their hosen and their hats. After this a 

 traverse across some fields was made to a Coal Measure Sandstone 

 quarry, called Bromwitch, to see where a fine lode of iron ore runs 

 in a north and south direction through a fissure or joint in the 

 beds. Candles were again required, and a curious-looking figure, 

 crowned with what a learned doctor of the party considered to be 

 a fac-simile of the Neanderthal skull, was seen sitting half hidden 

 in a hole, prepared to act as a guide to the lower regions. Down 

 this hole three of the members went by the aid of a perpendicular 

 ladder, to the first landing stage ; then again still farther down 

 till the depth of 80 feet had been reached, then they found them- 

 selves on terra firma, and following a drift to the north, traced the 

 course of the lode to the farthest extremity of the lowest workings 

 carried on up to the present time, and were enabled here and 

 there to knock off some portion of the ore which had been left 

 behind on the walls of the fissure. When the three members 

 returned to the surface the usual incredulity was shown by those 

 who remained behind as to whether the explorers had enlarged 

 their knowledge by going below — an incredulity always difficult 

 to meet satisfactorily. The report of lunch somewhere in the 

 distance was a spur to further progress, and retracing their steps 

 to the brick-yard, where Mr. Hippisley explained the process 

 whereby the Coal Measure clays which they had visited in the 

 morning were utilised for brick and tile making, they found 

 themselves comfortably settled round a welcome lunch, most 

 hospitably prepared for them at Temple Cloud by that gentleman. 

 After an hour's halt here some of the members started for Bath, 



