100 REPOET— 1869. 



of sand thin out in that direction before the beds of clay, and the coarse beds of 

 each kind before those which are finer ; fourthly, because the beds of sand, and 

 especially the " twentj'-seventh," are little more or less than disintegrated granite, 

 being made up of quartz frequently unrounded, crystals of felspar sometimes quite 

 angular, and grains of schorl ; and fifthly, because of the presence of sand in the 

 clay-beds, and of clay in those of unmistakeable granitic sand. 



Denudation of the Shroj>sliire and South Staffordshire Coal-fields, 

 By John Eandall. 



The author described a line of denudation in the Shropshire coal-field, familiarly 

 known as the Symon Fault, in which the coals and ironstones disappear in succes- 

 sion, more particularly at theKemberton audHalesfield pits, in the Madeley Wood 

 Co.'s Field, where it was stated that the workmen of one pit were stripping the 

 Fault in the top coal, whilst workmen in the adjoining pit were doing the same 

 thing in the clod coal, 60 yards lower down, and 'JOO yards nearer to what is sup- 

 posed to be the trough of the estuary, which would give a slope of 1 in 15. In 

 some instances portions of coal were stated to have been broken off and rounded by 

 the action of waves or currents ; in others, as at the Hill's Lane and Shaw Field 

 pits, the strata on approaching the line of denudation was disturbed, and often 

 vertical. Instances were also given, as at Caughley, where the measures having 

 been denuded, excepting the lowest, a younger series had been formed above them ; 

 and again, as at Linley, where, the whole of the older series having entirety disap- 

 peared, a younger group rested u])on Old Red Sandstone. Looking at the island- 

 like form of the Brown Clu Hills, and at the wide tracts from which the coal- 

 measures had been swept clean away to the south, and along what might be 

 supposed to be the mouth of the estuary, also at tlie result of the borings made 

 through the red rocks, and at the fact that first the Permians, then the Banter, and 

 lastly the Keuper sandstones came in one after the other as receding from the coal- 

 field, the author was of opinion that for sixteen miles (that is, from the margin of 

 the Shropshire to that of the Staffordshire coal-fields) the measures had been swept 

 away, with the exception of such portions only as might have been saved by de- 

 pression, the results of faults prior to denudation, or others to the north-east in the 

 direction of Cannock Chase, which might have been out of reach of the waters of 

 the estuary. 



The author added that, so far as he was aware, there was nothing on the oppo- 

 site or western side of the South Staffordshire coal-field inconsistent with this view. 

 There were perhaps a greater number of slip faults on that side on approaching the 

 western boundary of the coal-field, but these and similar facts, when read by the 

 light of those found on the Shropshire side, afforded grave reasons for further 

 inquiry, if not for the belief that either hy some strait or estuaiy the coal-measures 

 had, with the exception hinted at, been destroyed over a very Avide surface. 



On the Physical Causes which have jjroduced the unequal Bistrihution of Land 

 and Water bettveen the Hemispheres. By J. W. Reid. 



Chi certain Phenomena in the Drift near Norwich. By J. E. Tatlok. 



The Water-hearing Strata in the neighbourhood of Norwich. 

 By J. E. Tatlok. 



" Paleontologie de VAsie Mineure." By M. Tchihatchef. 



M. Tchihatchef in presenting to the Association a work entitled " Paleontologie 

 de I'Asie Mineure," and Atlas of Plates, stated that this work contained descrip- 

 tions of fossils collected by him in Asia Minor, by Viscoimt d'Archiac, E. de Ver- 

 neuil, and M. Fisher. All the new and rare species are figm-ed in the Atlas. 

 The total number of species enumerated and described in this work is about 



