Report of Field Meeting at Horsley, June 6th, 1903. 



By W. J. Lucas, B.A., F.E.S. Read September 24^//, 1903. 



June 6th — the day set apart for the field meeting at Horsley — was 

 fine and fairly bright. It was, moreover, warm without being un- 

 pleasantly hot. 



Though insects may not perhaps have been quite so plentiful as to 

 satisfy the more ardent lepidopterists, yet they seem, nevertheless, to 

 have provided a very fair list ; and then, of course, Horsley allows 

 good scope for those whose inclinations are towards other branches 

 of natural history. Taking all things together, therefore, the twenty- 

 five members and friends who met at the " Duke of Wellington " can 

 scarcely fail to have had a pleasant day, although their cabinets may 

 not have profited to any marked extent. 



On leaving Horsley Station the way to the " Duke of Wellington " 

 at East Horsley lies along a pleasant road, with its hedgerows at this 

 time of the year a garland of flowers. Here the geological formation 

 is London Clay, but at the inn this gives place to a narrow band of the 

 Lower London Tertiaries, which in turn are overlaid by the chalk, with 

 characteristic flora and fauna, both of which it was the object of the 

 party to investigate. Mr. G. Young (of the Battersea Field Club), 

 who joined the field meeting, tells me that this narrow band of Lower 

 London Tertiaries (rarely more than a quarter of a mile wide) forms 

 a persistent border to the northern edge of the outcrop of the chalk, 

 and that its position is indicated by the course of the main road from 

 Croydon to Guildford, while the long string of towns and villages 

 which it connects are all situated on this narrow strip. Their names 

 are Croydon, Beddington, Carsharlton, Sutton, Ewell, Epsom, 

 Ashtead, Leatherhead, Fetcham, the two Bookhams, Effingham, East 

 and West Horsley, East and West Clandon, Merrow, and Guildford. 

 A track-way following the same line seems to be prehistoric, dwellers 

 along its course in those early times probably finding it convenient 

 to have the chalk downs for pasturage on the one hand and the 

 woods on the London Clay for protection on the other, while the 

 springs at the edge of the chalk gave them a reliable supply of good 

 water. 



The Upper Chalk was found exposed in a pit not a quarter of a 

 mile from the village. The chalk is soft and white, and contains a 

 fair number of flints. Some slight attempt was made with Mr. 

 Young's assistance to test its fossiliferous qualities, with the result 

 that some half dozen species were discovered. They were (i) a 

 small portion of a sea-lily {Bourgmticrinus, sp.) ; (2) portions of a large 



