TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 93 
I next tried the effect of fusion of a large mass of granite, in this case from the 
Charnwood Forest in Leicestershire, which happened to be most easily procurable. 
This was done ina reverberatory furnace constructed for the purpose by Messrs. Kit- 
son and Hewitson, but the accidental failure of a portion of the furnace in the course 
of the experiment partially spoiled the result. The specimens, however, show a di- 
stinct passage from a perfectly glassy to a stony texture, and apparently even to a por- 
phyritic structure by the development of crystals. 
There are also specimens of the glassy texture, which by exposure to heat just 
below fusion in close tubes for two or three weeks, are changed to a stony texture ; 
also of the powdered rocks enclosed in a strong iron tube, and buried in the large 
mass of granite when in a state of fusion in the reverberatory furnace. 
The great desideratum, however, is the application of heat under high pressure 
with the presence of water, which must have been the condition, as remarked by 
Sedgwick, of the metamorphic rocks. My attempts in this direction have not yet 
succeeded. It is no easy matter to construct any sort of vessel capable of keeping 
red-hot water in safe custody. 
Photographs of the Quarry of Rowley Rag at Ponk Hill, Walsail. 
By Witt1aM Matuews, F.G.S. 
The well-known basaltic capping of Ponk Hill in the South Staffordshire coal- 
field is being so rapidly worked away, that it has seemed desirable that some record 
of its structure should be preserved. With this view the photographs laid before 
the Section have been taken ; they represent the whole of the face of rock now being 
quarried, from which the original structure of the mass may be easily ascertained. 
It formed when entire an irregular dome, communicating below with the extensive 
horizontal sheet of basalt intruded between the coal-measures, and consisted of two 
distinct sets of columns. 
1st. An interior cylindrical group of very perfect vertical columns, rapidly thin- 
ning and arching over at the top some distance below the vertex of the dome. 
2nd. Another group originating at the summit of the first, dipping down over 
their arched extremities, and then curving upwards so as to strike the exterior of the 
dome nearly perpendicular to its surface. 
The columns are all situated in vertical planes passing approximately through the 
axis of the dome. 
On Triassic Beds near Frome, and their Organic Remains. 
By C. Moors, F.G.S. 
The author stated he became aware of the probable presence of Triassic beds in 
the neighbourhood of Frome, by finding a slab of conglomerate containing teeth of 
Acrodus, Hybodus, and Saurichthys on a roadside heap of carboniferous limestone. 
He at once examined the district for their discovery without success; but more 
recently was fortunate enough to find fissures of the carboniferous limestone at 
Holwell, filled with a similar conglomerate, the organic remains in which evidenced 
its Triassic origin. . 
In describing the physical features of the district, the author remarked that Frome 
was situated on the extreme south-eastern boundary of the Somersetshire coal-field, 
and that just north of that town the old red sandstone, with a narrow belt of car- 
boniferous limestone lying on its side, might be seen emerging from beneath the 
inferior oolite. To the west the carboniferous limestones again appear in several 
pretty combs leading to Mells, Vallis, and Whatley, in the latter of which the 
Holwell quarries are situated. In the quarry opposite this village the limestone 
is worked to a depth of 35 feet. A fissure about a foot in breadth, commencing 
under a thin capping of vegetable soil, may be here observed, taking an irregular 
direction to the bottom of the quarry, where it increases to 10 feet in breadth. This 
is in part filled with vertical laminz, of mottled yellow, grey and blue stone. A 
quartzose sand also prevails, sometimes indurated, but often friable; in which case, 
the imbedded organic remains may be readily detached. 
First amongst these the Reptilia deserve notice, some of which belong to the The- 
