300 REPORTS. 



their absence. Mr. Edmonds stated that Mr. Shrubsole, in conjunction with Mr. 

 F. Kitton, had in preparation a paper upon the subject, which would shortly 

 appear. At the conclusion of the paper, Mr. W. J. Harrison, F.G.S., 

 spoke, pointing out that the discovery of this diatomaceous layer was of great 

 service in determining a definite horizon in the London clay, as its occurrence 

 in well-boring would determine approximately the thickness of clay which wo aid 

 have to be cut through before the chalk could be reached. It would also largely 

 aid in the discovery of " faults," which without such a guide were very difficult 

 of determination. — At recent meetings of the Society, Professor Babington and 

 Mr. Herbert Spencer were unanimously elected hon. vice-presidents. 



BIRMINGHAM AND MIDLAND INSTITUTE SCIENTIFIC SOCIETY. 

 — October 27th. — Mr. T. Birkmire read a paper on " Plant Adaptations." Novem- 

 ber 3rd. — The members visited the ammunition works of Messrs. Kynock and Co., 

 at Witton, and saw the various processes of making cartridges. November 10th. — 

 Mr. J. W. Oliver gave an interesting lecture on " Linnaeus, his Life and Work." 

 November 17th. — Mr. E. Evans read a paper on " Blowpipe Manipulation," and 

 gave practical illustrations in this very important branch of chemistry. 



NOTTINGHAM LITERARY AND PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY.— Natural 

 Science Section — October 13th. — Mr. J. H. Jennings, President of the Section, 

 gave an address on " The Preparation of Rock Sections for the Microscope." 

 On November 4tb, Mr. A. H. Simpson gave a lecture entitled " The Chemistry of 

 a Kitchen Fire." 



NOTTINGHAM NATURALISTS' SOCIETY.— October 20th. Mr. J 

 Shipman read a paper on the "Triassic Rocks of Cheshire and their Equivalents 

 at Nottingham," in which he compared the lithological characters and physical 

 aspects and relations presented by the rocks of this age in their typical develop- 

 ment in Cheshire with those of the same age at Nottingham, where they are 

 much thinner. Commencing at the base of the series, he described how the 

 Lower Mottled Sandstone passes up into the Bunter Pebble Beds, as at Notting- 

 ham, though between these places, at Dale, in South Derbyshire, there was a break 

 and a distinctly eroded surface. The Bunter Pebble Beds in Cheshire were a deep 

 red or reddish brown rather fine-grained sandstone, while at Nottingham they were 

 yellow, coarser, and less compact, but contained the same characteristic quartz 

 and quartzite pebbles in both areas. The Upper Mottled, (estimated to be 600ft. 

 thick,) absent at Nottingham, seemed the counterpart of the Lower Mottled of 

 Cheshire and Nottingham. His chief attention, however, was devoted to the 

 Keuper Basement Beds, which he found to rise in blackened cragsry cliffs from 

 steep wooded slopes of Upper Mottled to heights of from 400ft. to 500ft. above the 

 sea. Although Drift lay thickly on the low ground forming the western half of 

 Cheshire, the many quarries and natural exposures rendered the geology not 

 difficult of observation. The Keuper was found to rest on a level surface of the 

 Upper Mottled, apparently quite conformably, and there was no conglomerate 

 parting, as between the Bunter Pebble Beds and the Keuper at Nottingham. It 

 was in the Basement Beds that the footprints of Labyrinthodon were met with, 

 always at one particular horizon, represented by a thin dark line in the quarry at 

 Storeton Hill. The Keuper " Waterstones " of Cheshire contained more sandstone 

 and less marl than those of Nottingham, the sandstone being thicker and of a 

 more compact texture, though towards their passage into Upper Keuper the like- 

 ness became stronger. One result of his visit to Cheshire was to place it beyond 

 doubt that the patches of massive pebbly grit that cap the hills at Bramcote, 

 near Nottingham, to the thickness of some 60ft., and that were originally mapped 

 by Hull as Bunter Pebble Beds, are really outliers of the white sandstone 

 (Keuper Basement Beds) of Ashbourne, in Derbyshire, Alton, in Staffordshire, and 

 of Cheshire. Mr. E. Wilson, F.G.S., and himself had now traced these rocks across 

 the Midlands from Nottingham to Cheshire, and they had met with evidence 

 showing that these rocks, though now denuded into scattered patches, partly 

 concealed by overlying deposits, were originally formed in a narrow channel 

 that stretched across the Midlands from Cheshire to Nottingham, and perhaps 

 still farther east, during early Keuper times. 



