1g2 THE MICROSCOPICAL NEWS, 
identical but (owing to the deposits) on the more elevated site. 
Above the tiles came a bank of firm black mud from five to six 
feet in depth, filled with thousands of fresh-water shells, their white 
forms contrasting with the dark earth so strikingly that even to an 
ordinary observer the bank was very attractive. Above this mud a 
stratum of vegetable deposit was found about two feet thick, black 
in colour, and moist and flaky in character. Another curious mass 
of vegetation lay upon the latter, greenish in colour, and light 
in weight, and under the glass it was principally composed of 
hollow fragments of a cylindrical shape. Above this stratum a 
mass of wood was found embedded in mud and sand, but 
as no rootlets were found the gentlemen who surveyed the spot 
considered that these were originally bundles of hazel wood thrown 
upon the marshy ground to form a foundation for the subsequent 
buildings which became erected upon the spot. Each of the 
branches was pressed out of the usual cylindrical to an oval shape, 
and was of a very soft and moist character. The whole mass of 
wood had evidently been used as fascines. Above this the founda- 
tions of the buildings commenced. 
The Roman occupation of Bath probably ranged from a.D. 
50 to A.D. 440. Coins have been found with Nero’s inscription 
and with those of Trajan and Hadrian in various portions 
of our city. Wright, in his Bath Guide, states that probably 
A.D. 45 witnessed the arrival of a detachment of the 2nd legion 
to be stationed in this city, and he further states that in A.D. 
120 Hadrian crossed over to Britain with the gth legion, and 
installed a detachment of Roman soldiers in Bath. He alleges 
that the social and military works of the Roman conquerors 
were probably completed in a.D. 50, after two or three years’ 
arduous labour, and he especially refers to the splendid Roman 
baths 20 feet below the present level of the city as among the 
constructed works of that date. After the evacuation of the city 
by the Romans, the noble handiwork of these foreigners remained 
probably until a.p. 577, when the Britons were overthrown by their 
Saxon conquerors, and it is interesting to trace the subsequent 
character of the site which only last year was so rich in organic 
remains, but which remains have been carted away to form a soil 
in some portions of the Royal Institution Gardens. After corres- 
ponding with Dr. Partridge, of the Stroud Microscopical Society, 
that gentleman visited the site of the bath, and received from me 
a section of the mud bank. He therefore consulted with Mr. 
Witchell, of Stroud, a Fellow of the Geological Society, and 
perhaps you will allow me to read his report upon the nature of 
the site and the character of the deposit :— 
“Tn the deposits which immediately overlie the Roman tiles the 
physical condition of the valley of the Avon, following the period 
