Reports and Proceedings — Oeological Society of London. 831 



margins " ; when in contact " the grains are moulded into each 

 other, and welded together " ; but when " entirely immersed in 

 a soft matrix of mica or chlorite," they "still retain their sharp 

 outlines." In the "matrix" the chlorite and mica flakes are 

 gradually enlarged. 



While "mechanical force has been concerned in producing the 

 more intense metamorphism of the lower part of the series," the 

 author is " not disposed to advance this as the sole cause of the 

 changes produced." 



3. " On a Volcanic Series in the Malvern Hills, near the 

 Herefordshire Beacon." By Henry Dyke Acland, F.G-.S. 



These are the rocks described briefly by Dr. Callaway and 

 Mr. Eutley, and afterwards more fully by the late Professor A. H. 

 Green. They consist of tuifs, rhyolites, audesites, and dolerites 

 or basalts. The microscopic appearance of the rocks exposed in 

 excavations for a new reservoir between Tinker's Hill and Broad 

 Down indicates that they are much crushed ; indeed, the amount of 

 infiltrated calcite often causes the rhyolites to assume the aspect 

 of limestones. On Tinker's Hill there is less crushing. On Hang- 

 man's Hill there are rocks allied to epidosites. 



It is suggested that the rocks may be the volcanic equivalents 

 of the plutonic rocks of the Malvern axis faulted down and protected 

 by the bend in the axis which occurs in the neighbourhood of the 

 Herefordshire Beacon. 



II.— June 8, 1898.— W. Whitaker, B.A., F.E.S., President, in the 

 Chair. The following communications were read : — 



1. "On the Discovery of Natural Gas in East Sussex." By 

 C. Dawson, F.G.S., F.S.A. 



Inflammable natural gas was first recorded by Mr. H. Willett in his 

 thirteenth quarterly report of the Subwealden Exploration. Another 

 discovery was in a deep artesian boring in the stable-yard of the 

 New Heathfield Hotel. In 1896, at a site about 100 yards distant 

 from the last-mentioned locality, a boring was put down by the 

 London, Brighton, and South Coast Railway Co., the details of which 

 are given in the paper together with those of the earlier Heathfield 

 boring. From this boring gas has been escaping for the last 18 

 months, with a pressure of not less than 15 lb. to the square inch, 

 and at the rate of about 121 cubic feet per hour (with a pressure of 

 20 tenths maintained), although the tube is stopped up, and is 

 partially filled with water. 



Though deficient in illuminating quality, the gas burns well when 

 mixed with air and gives a good bunsen-flame. The author considers 

 that it is probably derived from the lower beds pierced, that is, the 

 Purbeck strata, or by percolation from the still lower Kimeridge 

 beds, which were not reached by the borings. The borings pierce 

 the southern slope of the great anticline which runs from Fairlight 

 into Mid-Sussex, and is joined at Heathfield by another considerable 

 anticline running through Burwash. 



