PROCEEDINGS 
OF 
THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON. 
Vou. III. 1840. No. 71. 
June 10,—Charles Lashmar, M.D., of Croydon, Surrey ; William 
Henry Tancred, Esq., M.P., and Lord Stavordale, Old Burlington- 
street, were elected Fellows of this Society. 
Eleven communications were read. 
1. A notice of a mass of trap in the mountain limestone on the 
western extremity of Bleadon Hill, Somersetshire, and on the line 
of the Bristol and Exeter Railway, by the Rev. D. Williams, F.G.S. 
This is the first discovery of trap iz situ in the Mendip Hills or in 
Somersetshire, with the exception of the Hestercombe granite, de- 
scribed by Mr. Horner*, and a slate porphyry, observed by Mr. Wil- 
liams, alittle north of Simmon’s birth, in Exmoor. The rock varies 
in character from a granular to a porphyritic and amygdaloidal 
greenstone. It occurs near a line of fault, which has brought the 
lias on a level with the carboniferous limestone ; and when first ex- 
posed on the eastern side of the railway cutting, it appeared to be 
conformably interstratified with the limestone; but the cutting of 
the western side (the line of railway ranging north and south) has 
subsequently proved that the trap is clearly intrusive, intersecting at 
a considerable angle the limestone beds. On the east side the 
trap is in contact with the lias, but no change appears to have been 
produced in that formation, though the mountain limestone is stated 
to be considerably altered. The trap at the lower part presents a 
broad bed-like mass, but it rapidly diminishes in its upward course 
through the limestone thinning away entirely. Mr. Williams states, 
that the limestone appears to have yielded along the line of one of 
the north-west joints. He acknowledges his obligation to Mr. 
Peniston, the resident engineer, for a correct section of the cut- 
ting. 
2, A memoir descriptive of a “ Series of Coloured Sections of the 
Cuttings on the Birmingham and Gloucester Railway,’ by Hugh 
Edwin Strickland, Esq., F.G.S. 
The author commences by expressing his regret at the irre- 
coverable loss, which science has experienced, in full advantage not 
having been taken of the valuable geological information, which has 
been exposed by the railway cuttings in different parts of England 
during the last ten years; and he suggests the propriety of each 
* Geol. Trans., 1st Series, vol. 3. p. 348. 
VOL. III. 2c 
