British Association. 235 
one half of the Coal-beds of the northern part of the basin, and less 
than a tenth of the southern portion, come to the surface. The 
absence of the Permian Beds, and the unconformability of the New 
Red Sandstone were also duly noticed; as well as the distribution 
of the Penarth Beds (formerly thought to be part of the Lower Lias). 
The superficial alluvium, with peat, was alluded to; and, lastly, a 
brief mention of the greenstone and vesicular trap-rock traversing 
the Lower Silurian strata and the Carboniferous Limestone at eight 
spots, concluded this geological history of the prominent features 
of the country. 
On THE GEOLOGY oF THE SoutH-Wrst or Enexanp.* By C. Moors, Esq., F.G.S. 
HE author pointed out certain physical features which led him 
to the conclusion that the Mendip Hills had performed an im- 
portant part in modifying the physical geology of the West of 
Kngland, and that it was probable that that range of hills had proved 
a barrier to the incursion of the Secondary seas which washed their 
southern slopes. He then observed that, whilst the Secondary rocks 
outside the coal-basin were generally deposited conformably, those 
on the outer edge, and within the Somersetshire coal-basin, afforded 
evidences of general unconformability, and were found under very 
abnormal conditions ; his view being, that the Mendips were at 
times only so far depressed as to admit of occasional irruptions of the 
sea within the coal-basin ; the deposits of the New Red Sandstone 
and the Rhetic and Liassic seas being very thinly represented 
therein. 
The Rhetic beds are a group of strata intermediate between the 
Trias and the Lias. Though thinly represented in this country, as 
compared with the Continental beds, they were shown to be of great 
interest in a paleontological point of view. Mr. Moore described 
the contents of three cartloads of deposit of this age, that he had 
found washed into a fissure of Carboniferous Limestone near Frome. 
From this he exhibited twenty-nine teeth of the oldest Mammals, 
three only having been previously found ; together with relics of nine 
genera of Reptiles, most of them new to this country, and fifteen 
genera of Fishes. Mr. Moore produced to the meeting 70,000 teeth 
of the Lophodus alone as the result of his labour, and stated that the 
three loads of clay had yielded him probably one million specimens. 
He then referred to the ironstone of the Middle Lias in the North 
of England, and remarked that one land-proprietor alone possessed 
there a quantity which, it had been calculated, when converted into 
iron, and sold at the present price of iron, would bring in money 
enough to pay off the national debt. ‘The same beds, he remarked, 
occurred around Bath and in the West of England ; but, from their 
not containing quite so much iron, and from their being thinner, the 
Fair City of the West would be spared the mortification of finding 
blast-furnaces springing up around. Passing to the Upper Lias, Mr. 
Moore described a very remarkable bed containing remains of Insects, 
* «The Reader,’ Oct. 1, 1864. 
