s+ <a, 
~~ 
REPORTS. 185 
“The Classification of Insects,” illustrated by photographic and other lantern 
slides. Many of the slides were photographed from mounted specimens by 
Mr. J. Burton, Portland Road, Nottingham, and were much admired by the 
members. April 14th.—An excursion was made to Stanton-on-the-Wolds, 
Grimston, and Wartnaby. This was the first excursion of the season, and, owing 
to the unfavourable state of the weather, a number of members were prevented 
from joining. Mr. EH. Parry, the engineer of the new line of railway now in 
course of construction between Nottingham and Melton Mowbray, kindly made 
arrangements for a special train to be placed at the disposal of the party, by 
means of which the journey was quickly and conveniently made. Starting from 
Nottingham at ten a.m., Stanton tunnel was soon reached; here the party 
alighted to examine the deposits of boulder clay in the cutting, and a section 
prepared by Mr. Parry was exhibited, which showed that in the tunnel (a 
thousand yards long) and its approaches the whole mass of the hill, 
to a height of 80ft. above the line, was composed of glacial drift. At the north 
end of the tunnel is a low outcrop of Rhetic shales, and Lower Lias limestone 
(10ft. exposed) at a little further south. At the south entrance‘of the tunnel the 
drift was well shown in a vertical section of 50ft. to 60ft. in height. The boulder 
clay is a stiff clay of a purplish brown colour, and, with the exception of an 
isolated pocket of earthy grit, did not appear to contain any interstratifications 
of sand or gravel, although, at the north end of the tunnel, a bed of clean, coarse, 
gritty sand, having a thicknessof 14ft., was observed. The majority of rock 
fragments contained in the clay are more or less perfectly smoothed or polished, 
and are often beautifully striated. The formation most abundantly represented 
is the Lower Lias limestone, the rounded blocks being often of large size. 
Less commonly nodules of fine-grained limestone, from the Rhetics, 
are found, and these, along with fragments of marlstone, Upper 
Keuper marl, and fibrous gypsum, may have come from no great distance. 
Boulders of millstone grit (one of which measured 8ft. in height by 11ft. 9in. in 
circumference), of encrinital carboniferous limestone, coal measure sandstone, 
and quartzites, probably from the Bunter pebble beds,—which also occur—must 
have come from a greater distance, as also must the pebbles of chalk and chalk 
flints, occasionally met with. This vast deposit appears to have been the result 
of the action of icebergs or floes, which, drifting along from the east and north 
became stranded in shallow water, and impinging on the shales of the Rhetic 
and Lias crumpled and kneaded their soft materials like so much dough, while 
tearing up, polishing, and striating the blocks of the harder limestone bands 
which those rocks contain. The engineer states that the surface of the Lower 
Lias limestone met with inthe tunnel beneath the boulder clay was striated in 
situ, the strie trending in an approximately north-east'and south-west direction. 
Regaining the train the party proceeded to Dalby. Here some time was spent 
in hunting for Lower Lias fossils in the waste heaps of the Grimston tunnel, and 
amongst others the following were obtained :—Gryphea arcuata, Unicardium 
cardioides, Cardinia Listeri, C. gigantea, Plicatula spinosa, Pholadomya 
ambigua, Lima gigantea, Ostrea Liassica, Crenatula ventricosa, Modiola 
scalprum, Pecten, Rhynchonella variabilis, Terebratula, Cerithium, Plewrotomaria, 
Serpula, Pentacrinus, Ammonites, Belemnites, Montlivaltia Hamiei, &c. After 
a visit to @ quarry in the marlstone at Wartnaby, the party soon after sought 
on io “ special,” and after a rapid run of ten miles reached Nottingham by six 
o'clock. 
STROUD NATURAL HISTORY AND PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY.— 
The annual meeting was held on April 24th. After the transaction of formal 
business, the President delivered an address. There was a most interesting 
conversazione and exhibition of a wonderful collection of scientific apparatus, 
experiments, natural history specimens, &c. 
WOOLHOPE NATURALISTS’ FIELD CLUB.—The annual meeting was 
held at Hereford, on April 15th. The general financial statement of the Club was 
read, and the dates and places of field meetings for the year fixed. The report of 
the Pomona Committee, with the Treasurer’s statement, were also read. After 
the members had dined together, the President, the Rev. H. W. Phillott, M.A., 
delivered his retiring address. 
