Geological Society of London. 185 



geological knowledge which have been made during the past year, 

 both in the publications of the Society and elsewhei'e in Britain. 

 The remainder of the address was devoted to a discussion of the 

 principles of nomenclature which should be followed in regard to 

 the metamorphic rocks. After describing the nature and relations 

 of the various metamorphic rocks in certain parts of the Alps, 

 Canada, Scotland, etc., the effects of the intrusion of igneous rocks, 

 and the results of pressure in producing changes, both mechanical 

 and chemical, upon rocks originally crystalline, he pointed out that 

 these last could generally be distinguished from anterior foliation, 

 otherwise produced ; that many rocks in the metamorphic series 

 appear to have originated in stratified deposits, but that the evidence 

 at present in our possession pointed to the very great antiquity of all 

 these, and to the probability of their having been produced under 

 conditions which have not recurred since the beginning of the 

 Palaeozoic period. 



The ballot for the Council and Officers was taken, and the following were duly 

 elected for the ensuing year: — President: Prof. J. W. Judd, F.R.S. Vice-Pre- 

 sidents: H. Bauerman, Esq.; John Evans, D.C.L., LL. D., F.R.S. ; A. Geikie, 

 LL.D., F.R.S. ; and J. A. Phillips, Esq., F.R.S. Secretaries: W. T. Blanford, 

 LL.D., F.R.S.; and W. H. Hudleston, Esq., M.A., F.R.S. Foreign Secretary: 

 Warington W. Smyth, Esq, M.A., F.R.S. Treasurer: Prof. T. Wiltshire, M.A., 

 F.L.S. Council: H. Bauerman, Esq. ; W. T. Blanford, LL.D., F.R.S. ; Prof. T. 

 G. Bonney, D.Sc, LL.D., F.R.S. ; Thomas Davies, Esq. ; Prof. P. Martin Duncan, 

 M.B., F.R.S. ; John Evans, D.C.L., LL.D., F.R.S. ; A. Geikie, LL.D., F.R.S. ; 

 Henry Hicks, M.D., F.R.S. ; G. J. Hinde, Ph.D. ; J. Hopkinsou, Esq. ; W. H. 

 Hudleston, Esq., M.A., F R.S. ; Prof. T. M'Kenny Hughes, M.A. ; Prof. T. 

 Rupert Jones, F.R.S. ; Prof. J. W. Judd, F.R.S. ; R. Lydekker, Esq., B.A. ; J. E. 

 Marr, Esq., M.A. ; J. A. Phillips, Esq., F.R.S.; Prof. H. G. Seeley, F.R.S.; 

 Warington W. Smyth, Esq., M.A., F.R.S.; J. J. H. Teall, Esq., M.A. ; W. 

 Topley, Esq. ; Prof. T. Wiltshire, M.A., F.L.S. ; Henry Woodward, LL.D., F.R.S. 



IT. —Feb. 24, 1886.— Prof. J. W. Judd, F.R.S., President, in the 

 Chair. — The following communications were read : — 



1. " On two Rhaatic Sections in Warwickshire." By Rev. P. B. 

 Brodie, M.A., F.G.S. 



The sections noticed in this paper were (1) one exposed on a 

 railway at Summer Hill, near Binton, between Stratford and Alcester, 

 and (2) one, 13 miles further to the south-east, at Snitterfield, three 

 miles north of Stratford- on- Avon, in excavations for a tunnel con- 

 nected with a supply of water to that town. 



At the first-named locality a bed with insect remains overlies the 

 firestone and Estheria-hed, and this is succeeded in descending order 

 by a considerable thickness of black and grey shales with the usual 

 Rhastic fossils. The bone-bed is not exposed. 



At the second locality, in borings and shafts, black Rhastic shales 

 were found in three places resting upon a denuded surface of new 

 Red Marl, and covered by between 40 and 50 feet of drift. Avicula 

 contorta and other typical fossils were obtained from the shales. 

 In other shafts the Rhaatic beds were wanting, so that apparently 

 those met with were merely small portions remaining of a larger 

 mass which had been denuded away. 



