

previously, illustrated by drawings of the trees, and a ground plan showing 

 their position. This paper will be found given in full in this volume. 



This brought the day's programme to a conclusion, and the proceedings 

 terminated. 



The next meeting of the season was arranged to take place at Chard on 

 Wednesday, July 7th. The elections, however, which were taking place 

 at that time interfered, and the programme for the day had to be abandoned. 



THE SECOND MEETING was held at Corfe Castle on Wednesday, July 28th, 

 and a warm and clear day was fortunately obtained. There were a large 

 number of members and friends present, including the President, Treasurer, 

 and Secretary. The first point visited was that of the Blashenwell deposit 

 of Post Tertiary age, which lies at the distance of about a mile from the 

 village, and which formed the subject of a paper by the President (see 

 Proceedings vol. vii., p. 109). On reaching the site of the bed, much of 

 which has been removed for the purpose of marling the adjoining land, a 

 description of the physical geology of the district was given by the 

 President. He said : We are standing near the two great fluvio-marine 

 deposits of the Purbeck and the Weald. Towards the close of the 

 preceding Portland era there had been a steady increase of land, enclosing 

 one or more centres of depression, which became inland seas, or shallow 

 lakes ; with the close of the Wealden epoch the gain was once more on the 

 side of the ocean. The Purbeck strata show a small amount of river 

 action ; its insect and mammalian remains were probably derived from the 

 adjacent shores, and not from any great distance, as was the case during 

 the Wealden period, when river action was more powerful. Although 

 there is no- intermingling of fresh water with marine genera in the same 

 stratum, there are evidences of more than one sudden change from fresh 

 water to marine, and a return to fresh water again through various stages, 

 suggesting the supposition of the sudden intrusion of the sea and its 

 gradual subsidence ; this accords with the idea of its intrusion into a lake, 

 and is not due to tidal action. The water was probably shallow and 

 brackish, then not under the influences of the river which flowed through 

 it. The carrying power of the river appears to have been greater westward, 

 for at Warbarrow and Lulworth the grits are coarser, and composed of 

 more bulky materials than those at Swanage. During the latter portion of 

 the Wealden period there seems to have been a continuous depression, 

 which increased the depth of the lake, and consequently diminished the 

 river action. The change of the Weald to the succeeding period was 

 exceedingly abrupt ; this is well shown at Atherfield, in the Isle of Wight, 



