Geological Society. 507 



that in this task, to which our age is so manifestly called, I too 

 may be a helper. 



I trust that you will excuse these few words uttered with reference 

 to my own peculiar pursuits, since these include yours also, and are 

 my only claim to your indulgence. And now, Gentlemen, that I 

 may trespass upon that indulgence no longer, I once more thank 

 you in all earnestness and sincerity for your good opinion which 

 placed me in this chair, and for the kindness and support which I 

 have on all occasions received from you ; and with my best wishes 

 for your prosperity, and that of your science, I resign my office into 

 abler hands. ■ 



Feb. 27. — A paper was first read, entitled " An Account of Im- 

 pressions and Casts of Drops of Rain, discovered in the Quarries at 

 Storeton Hill, Cheshire," by John Cunningham, Esq., F.G.S. 



The author commences by stating, that no person acquainted with 

 Geology, can doubt of rain having fallen during remote ages of the 

 world, because to its destructive and transporting powers many of 

 the sedimentary strata must have owed their origin. He also ob- 

 serves, that the vast forests which flourished anterior to the era of 

 the new red sandstone, and are now treasured up in beds of coal, 

 could not have existed without abundant supplies of atmospheric 

 waters. Mr. Cunningham refers likewise to Mr. Scrope's account 

 of the permanent preservation of the eifects of a shower, which fell 

 on extremely fine ashes, thrown out by Vesuvius during the eruption 

 of 1822. The drops of rain formed globules which resembled in shape 

 and motion those produced by sprinkling water on a dusty floor ; and 

 the globules afterwards hardened into pellets, which accumulated, 

 at the bottom of a slope in some places, into beds a foot or more 

 thick ; and they afterwards became so firmly agglutinated, that it re- 

 quired a smart blow from a hammer to break the mass. 



The effects of rain described by Mr. Cunningham, are, however, 

 of a kind entirely diff'erent from those produced on the ashes of 

 Vesuvius. They were discovered by him in the sandstone quarries 

 in which the footsteps of the Chirotherium were found* ; and he 

 was the first to assign tlieir origin to the eff'ects of rain. The 

 under surface of two strata, at the depth of 32 and 35 feet from 

 the top of the quarry, present a remarkably blistered or warty 

 ai)pearance, being densely covered by minute hemispheres of the 

 same substance as the sandstone. These projections are casts in 

 relief of indentations in the upper surface of a thin subjacent bed 

 of clay, and due, in the author's opinion, to drops of rain. On 

 one of the layers of clay, they ar2 small and circular, as if pro- 

 duced by a gentle shower ; on the other, they are larger, deej)cr 

 and le.-'S regular in form, indicating a more violent operation, 

 possibly accompanied by hail. On the surface of these layers of 

 clay there are also impressions of the feet of small animals, wliich 

 appear to have jjassed over tiie clay either during the showers or not 



* Sec tlic Memoir by the Coiuniittec of the Niiturtil llintory Society of 

 Liverpool, p. 12. 



