Yorkshire Naturalisls <tt Cowthorpe. 199 



As mig-ht be expected, the reports ^'i most of the sectional 

 officers were ' maistly novvt,' as one member so aptly expressed 

 it. The weather had been even too wet for the concholoijists. 



With reijard to the botanical section, the Rev. W. Fowler 

 states that the few mosses, fung-i, and alg-ae collected proved to 

 be very common ones, with the exception of Morchella esculeiiia, 

 from Ribston Park. As some compensation for the wet day, it 

 was interesting to see how well the Dandelion and Greater 

 Stitchwort protected their pollen ; the former by the closing- of 

 its capitulum and the latter by the bending- of its stalk. A horse 

 trough by the road- side so abounded in an alga, Raphidium 

 polyfnorphum, as to cause the water therein to appear yellowish- 

 green. Its breadth is about the -^Va °^ '^" inch, in strong 

 contrast to that of the Cowthorpe Oak, say 17 feet, yet each 

 lives and multiplies, is equally adapted to it surroundings, and 

 fills its appointed place in nature. 



Mr. E. Hawkesworth, the president of the geological sec- 

 tion, who had done his best to carry out his programme, 

 reported that the district does not offer any very great attraction 

 to the geologist. To the west of it the ridge of Permian rocks 

 slopes gently away eastward, passing beneath the Bunter Sand- 

 stone, which is seen in only a few places, being covered by the 

 vast glacial and post-glacial deposits o^ the Vale of York. 



Probably because oi the paucity of fossils, neither the 

 Permian nor Triassic rocks of the district receive much atten- 

 tion, though they present many interesting- problems. 



Stretching from Boroughbridge to the north, in a southerly 

 and easterly direction, is a series oi well-defined ridges of glacial 

 origin, terminating in the famous moraines at York. Provided 

 better weather, these ridges would have afforded ample work 

 for the few geologists present, as there are good sections cut into 

 them at Flaxby, Clareton, Grafton, and Hopperton. A visit 

 was made to one of these ridges, or series of ridges, occupying 

 the ground between Allerton Park, Flaxby, and Clareton. The 

 highest parts run up to the 200 feet contour line, but they are 

 very irregular both in height and shape. Some time was spent 

 in the examination of a pit near Flaxby village, where the stones 

 are extracted and broken up for road metal. The section shows 

 a considerable thickness of sandy material full oi stones, varying 

 in size from two feet to the smallest pebbles. There is no trace 

 of stratification, the stones being distributed higgledy-piggledy, 

 large and small, throughout the mass. Most of them are sub- 

 angular, some well striated and polished. The most remarkable 



1903 June I. 



