241 



YORKSHIRE NATURALISTS AT FILEY. 



30th MAY— ist June 1903. 



No doubt the i^lorious weather immediately precediiii;- the ex- 

 cursion was larg^ely responsible for the success of the 172nd 

 meeting- of the Union at P'iley. On the Saturday morning- 

 about two dozen members started at Speeton Station for the 

 cliffs, joined by Mr. C. G. Danford, of Reighton, who has 

 recently made some important ' finds ' in the Speeton and 

 Kimeridg-e Clays. Unfortunately, a thick mist obstructed 

 what would have been a g-lorious view of the Speeton Cliffs, 

 and this also hung- about throug-hout all the excursion, with the 

 exception of a few hours on the Monday afternoon. 



On reaching- the shore the party took a southerly direction, 

 and found that the sea had bared a mag^nificent section in the 

 red chalk, about 120 yards long-, one of the finest exposures that 

 has been visible for many years. From it the characteristic 

 fossils were freely g-athered. 



The Speeton Clay, to the north of the g-ap in the cliffs, has 

 been wretchedly poor for collecting for some time, owing- to 

 landslips, etc. Mr. Danford pointed out an exposure of the 

 ' Coprolite bed,' at the base of the series, however, which was 

 new to most of those present. The remainder of the after- 

 noon was occupied in examining- the drift and boulders around 

 Filey Bay. 



In the evening- over thirty members met at Foord's Hotel, 

 under the chairmanship of Mr. G. T. Porritt. A paper by the 

 Rev. W. C. Hey, entitled ' Shore Collecting- at Filey and Scar- 

 boroug^h,' was read by Mr. T. Fetch. In this an appeal was 

 made for more w'orkers among-st the marine fauna and flora. 

 Mr. J. W. Stather g-ave an address on some recent g-eolog-ical 

 discoveries in the district, in which he referred to Dr. A. W. Rowe's 

 work on the chalk zones ; to Mr. Danford's record of a nearly 

 complete skeleton of Ichthyosaurus thyreospondylus^ from the 

 Kimeridg-e Clay at Speeton, a new record for the coimty ;■" 

 and the g-lacial striae o\\ the limestone underh-ing- the Boulder 

 Clay in the vicinity of Filey Brig^. Some of these he had 

 himself recorded. He also referred to recent advances in 

 the study of the ice-borne erratics. A paper by the Re\'. 

 E. M. Cole, entitled ' Roman Remains near Filey,' was 

 read by the secretary. This described the relics found after 

 a landslip on the north side of Carr Naze, in 1857. Mr. A. 



■"'See 'The Naturalist,' 1902, p. 170. 

 1903 July I. y 



