x Reports and Proceedings. 363 
mass of chalk- and flint-rubble, with beds of loam, from 20 to 80 feet 
thick, and containing Land-shells. Mr. Prestwich considered this 
accumulation analogous to the Loess, which it resembles in general 
character, while the shells found in it belong to species common 
in that deposit. 
2. ‘On the Superficial Deposits of the Valley of the Medway, 
with Remarks on the Denudation of the Weald’ By C. Le Neve 
Foster, Esq., B.A., B.Se., F.G.S., and William Topley, Esq., 
F.G.S., of the Geological Survey of Great Britain.—In the first 
part of the paper the authors gave a description of the super- 
ficial deposits of the valley of the Medway. ‘They showed that 
deposits of river-gravel.and brick-earth (loess) ogcur at various 
heights up to 300 feet above the level of the river. <A detailed 
account was given of the ‘pipes’ at Maidstone, where brick-earth 
(loess), containing land and freshwater shells and mammalian re- 
mains, has been let down into deep cavities in the Kentish Rag, 
probably by the gradual dissolving away of the limestone by the 
action of rain-water containing carbonic acid. Several interesting 
cases of disturbed gravel were mentioned. ‘The second part of the 
paper was intended mainly to show what light is thrown upon the 
theory of the denudation of the Weald by a study of the superficial 
deposits. After a brief account of previous theories, with objections 
to the theory of fracture and the marine theory, the authors endea- 
voured to prove that the gravel and brick-earth (loess) occurring at 
a very great height above the level of the Medway are old alluvia of 
that river. If this point be granted, it follows that so large a denu- 
dation has been effected by atmospheric agencies—. e., rain and 
rivers,—that, in the opinion of the authors, there will be little 
difficulty in supposing the present inequalities of surface in the 
Weald to have been produced by these agents acting on a com- 
paratively plane surface of marine denudation. A discussion as to 
the origin of Escarpments then follows. The authors considered 
that the Escarpments of the Chalk and Lower Greensand which 
surround the Weald are not sea-cliffs, but are due to the differ- 
ence of waste of the hard and soft formations under atmospheric 
denudation. 
If. June 21, 1865.—W. J. Hamilton, Esq., President, in the chair. 
The following communications were read :-— 
1. ‘On the Carboniferous Rocks of the Valley of Kashmere.’ By 
Capt. H. Godwin-Austen. With Notes on the Carboniferous Bra- 
chiopoda, by T. Davidson, Esq., F.R.S., F.G.S. ; and an Introduction 
and Résumé, by R. A. C. Godwin-Austen, Esq., F.R.S., F.G.8. Com- 
municated by R. A. C. Godwin-Austen, Esq., F.R.S., F.G.S.—This 
paper was a continuation of one read before the Society last year, in 
which the Carboniferous, Jurassic, and Post-tertiary deposits and 
fossils were described by Capt. Godwin-Austen, Mr. Davidson, and 
Mr. Etheridge. In this communication Capt. Godwin-Austen con- 
fined himself to the Carboniferous formation, which was shown by 
him to have, in the Valley of Kashmere, a thickness of more than 
1,500 feet. The upper portion of this mass contained but few fossils, 
