748 Meeting of the British Association. [Oct., 
Very interesting local communications were made by Mr. Charles 
Moore and Mr. W. Stoddart. The former alluded to the extraordinary 
abundance of fossils in the clay near Frome, where more than a million 
organisms, including 29 mammalian types and many reptilia, were 
obtained by him from a single cart-load of the material. From the 
Rhetic beds also Mr. Moore obtained 70,000 teeth of one kind of 
fossil alone. Mr. Stoddart endeavoured to prove that the dividing 
line between the Carboniferous and Devonian rocks lies below and 
not above certain highly-fossiliferous beds at Clifton, which in Ireland 
have been regarded as Devonian, but are there less rich in fossils. 
The Marwood sandstone, Coomhola grits, and some other beds, are 
the Irish representatives, and are largely developed in the south-west 
of that country. At Clifton, a thin limestone among marls is loaded 
with incredible numbers of minute organisms, easily separated from 
the matrix, as the fossils are insoluble in dilute acid, which removes 
the limestone completely and rapidly. From one pound weight were 
obtained 1,600,000 perfect fossils, besides fragments and débris. 
A valuable local memoir was read by Mr. J. Randell on the 
important beds of building-stone quarried near Bath. The export of 
these stones from the quarries around Bath exceeds 100,000 tons per 
annum, and they are conveyed to great distances. Mr. Randell 
described very accurately their geological position, which he stated to 
be perfectly definite in the oolitic series. He remarked that the beds 
occasionally thin out as if lenticular, but they are always under a 
capping of harder, rougher, and less valuable stone. They die away 
to the east and south-east. The dip is small, varying generally from 
one in forty to one in sixty. The thickness of the best stone is from 
12 ft. to 25 ft. Above it are 25 to 50 feet of Upper Rag not worked 
to send away, tough, shelly, and brownish in colour. Below are from 
150 to 200 feet of Lower Rag, not always coarse, but apt to decompose 
on exposure. Mr. Randell then described the method of working in 
the best quarries. After the first block has been obtained from under 
the rag, the stone is all sawn, avoiding waste from blasting and 
wedging. The stone is generally got in the same manner as coal in 
stalls whose width depends on the goodness of the roof. There is 
no waste. 
A discussion arose on this paper. Professor Phillips alluded to 
the stone selected by the Romans as having stood better than that 
now got. Professor Ansted pointed out that the stone, like others, 
* stood much better in a building when it had been first thoroughly 
dried and hardened in the air. Mr. Ethridge spoke to the accuracy 
of Mr. Randell’s sections. 
Mr. Tristram read several interesting communications on the 
Geology of Palestine and the adjacent parts of Asia Minor. He 
exhibited fragments of a bone breccia with flint flakes, which Mr. 
Evans was prepared to assert must certainly have been of human 
manufacture, and brought from a distance. The age of the breccia 
was not however clear. Mr. Tristram also exhibited a series of very 
curious fossils from a limestone of the cretaceous period. Among 
