Cotteswold Naturalists' Club. 373 



The financial statement was passed, and some dissatisfaction was 

 expressed that members should allow their subscriptions to be in 

 arrear. 



Sir W. Guise then proceeded to read the annual address, which 

 was principally a resume of the field meetings and proceedings, 

 of the past year. Allusion was made to a letter received by. 

 the President from Mr. C. Moore, of Bath, on the much-mooted 

 question of the Infra-liassic beds of the West of England, and 

 which had induced the members to select Dunraven as one of 

 their places of meeting (on August 21st). During the disscussion 

 which ensued, Dr. Wright objected strongly to the term " Infra- 

 lias," and Mr. Etheridge took exception to that part of Mr. Moore's 

 paper which referred to the range of Gryplicea incurva, at Brocastle, but 

 especialty at Southerndown, which he believed, after examining the 

 specimens, were not G. incurva, the true type of which occurs in the 

 BucMandi beds above, and in those immediately succceeding the 

 Liassic beds in the Southerndown section. The occurrence also of 

 Plicatula intusstriata in the zone of "A. angulatus " should be ex- 

 pected; for although an abundant and typical shell in the Ehsetic 

 beds below (everywhere in England and on the Continent), still the 

 persistency with which deep-sea species were found to live on, 

 — especially the OstrceadcB, — would excite no wonder that so few 

 were found in common even in one formation. The Brocastle and 

 Dunraven areas are fraught with the greatest difficulty, both on 

 physical and palaeontological grounds. Much has yet to be done in 

 this area, and the Cotteswold Club are right in preparing to make 

 this spot the scene of one of their visits, to explore for themselves, 

 and look into the vexed question of the occurrence of " Muschel- 

 kalk" species in the so-called "Infra-lias" beds of the West of 

 England and Wales. 



A paper by Professor Buckman was then read, on Eoofing Tiles 

 of Eoman date, which were discovered during some excavations at 

 Bradford Abbas. 



At the request of the President and some of the members present, 

 the Eev. Mr. Symonds read a paper on the celebrated address de- 

 livered by Dr. Hooker, at the British Association Meeting at 

 Nottingham, and the opinions of that distinguished botanist on the 

 "Theory of the Origin of Species," by Mr. Darwin. 



Dr. Wright said that, although a consistent opponent to Darwin's 

 theory on the " Origin of Species," he rejoiced that the days were 

 passed when the odium tlieologicum was applied to scientific investi- 

 gations. He then entered into his reasons for opposing the theory 

 on palasontological grounds, and gave an eloquent description of the 

 persistence of living species of corals in the Western Ocean, where 

 existing coral reefs were ascertained, by the careful investigation of 

 Agassiz, to be more than seventy thousand years old. How then did 

 it happen, that during all that lengthened period the species re- 

 mained unchanged. 



Mr. Etheridge did not think Pala3ontology alone would solve this 

 intricate question : so many links were broken, so much of past life 



