Bevieios — The Essex Field Club. 325 



a schistose series, all of uncertain age. Mr. Middlemiss designated 

 the oval tract of schistose rocks running N.W. and S.E. as the Inner 

 Formation, and the oval rings of the other formations which sweep 

 round it the Outer Formations. He finds that the outer formations 

 at every point dip into and under the central tract, and that the 

 schistose rocks themselves are arranged in an elongated quaquaversal 

 so as to complete the appearance of a synclinal whose highest rocks 

 are the schists. That the whole area is not inverted is proved by 

 the constant sequence of the fossiliferous horizons (Mesozoic below 

 Nummulitic), and as these are in their proper place, the massive 

 limestone and volcanic series are pretty certainly in their right order 

 beneath. What then is the true place of the schists ? At some 

 spots Mesozoic beds dip directly beneath the schists, but at others 

 the Nummulitic intervenes and is found actually in contact with 

 schists and quartzites " without any semblance of what can be called 

 a transition rock." " To satisfy a condition of this kind the most 

 glaring case of selective metamorphism would be totally inadequate ; " 

 and therefore the whole set of outer formations must be younger 

 than the inner formations. The author then urges that the constant 

 infraposition of the outer formations must be more than a coincidence, 

 indeed a necessary concomitant of the Post-Nummulitio mountain 

 building of the Himalayas, in which the rocks were compelled to 

 take up less horizontal room by sigmoidal -flexure and over-faulting ; — 

 it is the story of the Highlands told in a new country. The Scotch 

 woi'k of Lapworth and the Alpine work of Heim are bearing good 

 fruit in India, and we maybe sure the Himalayas will do their share 

 in elucidating the principles of mountain structure and earth-move- 

 ment. W. W. W. 



V. — The Essex Field Club. 



AMONG- the most enterprising of our local scientific societies is 

 the Essex Field Club. Like the Cumberland Association, its 

 aim is to record facts of local importance ; but its publications, while 

 illustrating the Natui'al History, Geology, and Pre-historic Archgeo- 

 logy of Essex, include some essays and memoirs of much wider 

 interest. In 1885 the first of a series of special memoirs was 

 published, and this, the work of Prof. Meldola and Mr. William 

 White, was a Eeport on the East Anglian Earthquake of April 

 22nd, 1884. It contains a list of British Earthquakes which have 

 caused structural damage, and full particulars of the last important 

 earthquake which originated beneath the surface of Essex, and was 

 attended by so much damage to buildings. The report should be in 

 the hands of all those interested in Earthquakes ; it is a model upon 

 which other reports might be based, and furnishes many suggestions 

 on what to observe in connection with the catastrophes. Of great 

 interest also is the Presidential Address delivered by Mr. T. V. 

 Holmes at the annual meeting of the Club in 1S86 ; it deals with 

 British Ethnology, being a review of the evidence of characteristics 

 and race-affinities of the various settlers in the British Islands, and 

 the extent of their probable survival at the present day. 



