385 
GEOLOGY AT THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION. 
W. LOWER CARTER, M.A., F.G.S. 
THE proceedings of Section C were of average interest and were 
consistently attended by a goodly number of geologists, though 
the number of steps to be climbed to the meeting room no 
doubt kept the roving members at a minimum. The presi- 
dental address of Professor Garwood was dealt with in the last 
number of The Naturalist and awakened much interest as 
opening a new chapter in the study of rock-building organisms. 
This was followed by a lucid and masterly address on the 
geology of Birmingham, by Professor C. Lapworth, which was 
supplemented by notes on the igneous rocks of the district 
by Professor W. W. Watts. Several important papers on the 
local geology were read. Mr. Henry Kay described the Black 
Country plateau with its marginal hill barrier and four interior 
drainage areas. The recession of the midland watershed, 
owing to the activity of the Warwickshire Avon, was described. 
Glacial modification was much in evidence and a lake overflow 
valley is traceable through Walsall. Extensive buried valleys 
have been found. The Trent drainage area has been sub- 
jected to excessive piracy and has steadily suffered loss. Its 
sole gain is that of the Penk at the expense of the Dee. The 
northern drainage is consequent on the formation of the 
South Staffordshire anticline. Speculations as to the former 
north-west extension of the Thames drainage must be aban- 
doned. 
The basal Carboniferous beds at Lye were described by 
Messrs. W. Wickham King and W. J. Lewis. Below the thick 
coal in Lusbridge Brook are 280 feet of clays and coals, under- 
neath which are beds of conglomerate and clays with limestone 
grit and cherts, which contain many imperfect casts of fossils. 
They were probably laid down in the vicinity of a shore line, 
and the conglomerates show distinct evidence of inter-Carboni- 
ferous denudation. Mr. Frank Raw described a wind-worn 
rock surface at Lilleshall Hill, Salop, which is a ‘ hogsback’ 
of Uriconian. The whole of the rock surface has been ground 
and polished. The surfaces of projecting masses of the conglo- 
merate near the Monument are deeply fluted as by wind-blown 
sand. In the excavations for the Lilleshall reservoirs many 
sand-polished stones were found embedded in sand. _Interest- 
ing notes on the Flora and Fauna of the Upper Keuper Sand- 
stones of Warwickshire and Worcestershire were presented 
by Messrs L. J. Wills and W. Campbell Smith. At the base of 
the. belt of sandstones which underlies the Keuper Marls comes 
a bone bed, composed of fragments of green marl, plants, 
fish remains, and teeth and bones of labyrinthodonts. In 
1913 Nov. 1. 
