212 Reports and Proceedings. 
coal-ficld is remarkable as being the nearest to London, and being 
capable of enormous extension, by mining beneath the Permian 
Beds. 
There are four principal heads under which the consumption of 
Coal may be arranged. 1. Household, including gas ; 2. Manufac- 
tures; 8. Ironworks; 4. Export. During the past year, the con- 
sumption under the first three of these has increased, and under the 
last declined; so that we conclude that the enormous supply raised 
from our mines, which is valued by Mr. Hunt at more than 
£20,000,000, has been employed in warming and lighting our homes, 
turning our machinery, and developing our manufactures. 
REPORTS AND PROCEEDINGS. 
——_+-—— 
A soInt meeting of the CorrEswoLp and MALverN Fre_p-CiLuss 
was held at Cheltenham on the 17th of August. The party proceeded 
in a ‘drag’ to the Seven Springs, where the Thames takes its rise, and 
thence walked to the Leckhampton section. In the absence of Dr. 
Wright, Mr. Etheridge, of the Royal School of Mines, very kindly 
explained the character of the strata, and their position in the In- 
ferior Oolite. After dinner at the Queen’s Hotel, Mr. Beach read 
an interesting paper, very well illustrated, ‘On Fungi, and on some 
of the esculent species found near Cheltenham.’ He made some 
remarks on the strong prejudice which exists against all kinds of 
Fungi except the Mushroom, and on the immense quantities consumed 
by all classes on the Continent, where they are weil understood 
and appreciated; and then enumerated the best kinds he had 
found in the district. The President of the Cotteswold Ciub, Major 
Guise, who has paid particular attention to Fungi, spoke in high 
praise of Mr. Beach’s paper. Dr. Bird read a paper on some Mam- 
malian remains found in the Drift-gravel at Beckford, near Eves- 
ham ; and, at Major Guise’s request, Mr. Etheridge gave an address 
on the district visited in the morning, which was rendered very inte- 
resting from the admirable series of seetions he exhibited, shewing the 
Lias and Oolite of Lyme, Yorkshire, and Gloucestershire.—W. C. L. 
East Kent Naturau History Socrety.—The following is the 
substance of a Field-lecture, On the Cliffs at Folkestone, given to 
this Society on August 80th, by Mr. W. Whitaker, B.A., F.G.S., of 
the Geological Survey, and Hon. Mem. of the E. Kent Nat. Hist. 
Soc. :— 
The formations shown on the coast near Folkestone belong to the 
‘Cretaceous’ Series, including (in ascending order) the Lower Green- 
sand, the Gault, the Upper Greensand, and the Chalk, all sea- 
deposits. There is a slight northerly dip, so that higher and higher 
beds come on in that direction. 
The Lower Greensand forms the cliff from Hythe to Folkestone. 
As a general rule, the beds of which this formation consists are not 
green ; but it owes its name to the fact that in some places it is deeply 
