Geologists' Association. 141 



limestone he considered to be very small. The Inferior Oolite, on 

 tlie contrary, he believed to have suffered denudation, and he con- 

 sidered that the course of the valleys formed by tbis agent was 

 dependent on the form of the limestones capping the hills. 



DiscussiON.—Prof. Morris did not consider that the author's views as to the 

 Oolitic masses round Bath being originally isolated coral banks with clay-beds, 

 although suggestive, were quite satisfactory. He pointed out that the strata on each 

 side of the valleys were similar in structure, mineral character, and fossil contents, and 

 were once continuous ; and the present intervening deep valleys were rather due to 

 the movements which the area had undergone in producing lines of weak resistance, 

 subsequently assisted by the erosive action of percolating and running water, both in 

 excavating and undermining the harder rocks, so as to cause them to bend towards 

 the hill-sides, or fall in larger or smaller masses on their slopes. 



Mr. Seeley thought that Mr. Mitchell was justified in applying considerations 

 drawn from the formation of coral islands to the elucidation of the phenomena under 

 discussion. He maintained that limestones must always occur in isolated masses with 

 intervening masses of clay, and that the clay would be washed out, leaving the lime- 

 stone as hills. 



Mr. Whitaker held that when like beds cropped out on the tops or flanks of 

 opposing hills it was a logical inference that the said beds had once spread across the 

 space between ; that there was no need to call in the agency of supposed coral islands 

 to explain the occurrence of isolated masses of limestone, which were perfectly ac- 

 counted for by denudation, an agency which involved no supposition, and was quite 

 equal to the work. 



Mr. Etheridge remarked that the Mollusca of the outliers of the Oolites in the 

 Severn Valley were constant in beds of the same relative level. He also referred 

 to the sliding of the Oolitic strata of the Cotteswolds upon the subjacent clays as 

 accounting for the dip towards the valleys mentioned by the author. He considered 

 that the valleys had been scooped out by denudation. 



The President inquired whether the author was provided with any sections showing 

 the thinning out of the beds. 



Mr. Mitchell, in reply, stated that he had seen both sides of what he regarded as 

 coral reefs. He remarked that his hypothesis was arrived at by deduction, by 

 inferring from observations on existing coral reefs that those of the Oolites must have 

 been covered up as islands. He remarked that if the Oolitic beds had slipped, as 

 described, upon the underlying clays, they could hardly range on opposite sides of 

 the valleys. He noticed that the action of water ia covering the blocks of Oolite 

 with crystallized carbonate of lime would be protective, and remarked that the sur- 

 face of the reefs was virtually a sea-bottom on which Mollusca lived, so that their 

 occurrence at corresponding levels in diflTerent hills was not to be wondered at. 



The following specimens were exhibited to the Meeting : — 



Fossils from the Punfield Formation ; exhibited by J. W. Judd, 

 Esq., in illustration of his paper. 



Specimens of Gold ; exhibited by Prof. Tennant, F.G.S. 



A Flint and Bone Implement from the Gravel of Cambridgeshire; 

 exhibited by the Eev. Osmond Fisher, F.G.S. 



Geologists' Association. — The Annual General Meeting of this 

 useful and flourishing Society was held at University College, on 

 Friday, the 3rd of February last, the retiring President, Professor 

 Morris, in the chair. The annual report having been read and 

 adopted, the officers for the ensuing year were elected. Thomas 

 Davidson, Esq., F.E.S., F.G.S. , etc., who has just completed his 

 great work on the British Fossil Brachiopoda, and Charles Moore, 

 Esq., F.G.S., the indefatigable and highly-successful explorer of 

 Lower Jurassic strata, were unanimously elected honorary members 

 of the Association. A vote of thanks to John Gumming, Esq., 



