50 Geological Society. 



Cerceris barbifera^ Biscli. 



Cerceris barbifera, Bisch. Deutsch. Zentr. Afrik. Exp. iii., Zool. i. p. 222 



(1911). 2- 

 ? Cerceris bagandantm, Turn. Ann. & Ma?. Nat. Hist. (9) ii. p. 465 



(1918). tf"2. 



I think these are identical, but the median lobe of the 

 clypeus in bagandarum is much broader and shorter than in 

 BischofPs figure, which also omits the large triangular tooth 

 on the inner side of the mandibles. These differences may be 

 clue to inaccuracies in the figure, as otherwise the description 

 of barbifera agrees well with bagandarum. As I have pre- 

 viously suggested, I look on this and also on C. sodalis, 

 Turn., as subspecies of G. diodonfa, Schlett. 



PROCEEDINGS OF LEARNED SOCIETIES. 

 GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



December 18th, 1918.— Mr. G. W. Lamplugh, E.R.S., 

 President, in the Chair. 



The following communication was read : — 



' On a Bed of Interglacial Loess and some Pre-Glacial Fresh- 

 water Clays on the Durham Coast.' By Charles Taylor Trechmann, 

 D.Sc., F.G.S. 



A few years ago the Author described a bed of Scandinavian 

 drift that was found tilling up a small pre-Glacial valley-like 

 depression at Warren-House Gill on the Durham coast. This 

 section and others north and south of it have been kept under 

 observation at different times, and several new features have been 

 noticed as the high tides and other agencies exposed parts of the 

 coast. 



Towards the southern end of the old pre-Glacial valley at 

 Warren-House Gill a bed of material, varying from 4 to 12 feet in 

 thickness, was found overlying the Magnesian Limestone and also 

 the Scandinavian drift. This material has been carefully examined 

 chemically and microscopically, and proves to be identical in 

 chemical and physical characters with a sample of the true Con- 

 tinental loess. It is light brown or fawn in colour, very porous 

 and extremely finely divided, and is devoid of plasticity. Towards 

 the base, where it has not been disturbed since it was laid down, 

 it contains a number of rounded and elongated, often very hard, 

 calcareous concretions. In the cliff-section it shows little or no 

 trace of bedding, but tends to break down along vertical clefts and 

 cracks. It passes upwards into a few feet of material that consists 

 of loess which has been partly redeposited by water, and is mixed 

 with sand, gravel, and other material derived from the Scandinavian 

 drift. 



The bed of loess and redeposited loess-like drift has suffered 



