CiRC. T03. 



BOOKS AND MAPS.— The country for investigation is in Sheets 87 N.K. 

 and 87 S E i-inch Ordnance Map (both can be had geologically coloured). 

 Lankester's 'Account of Askern and its Mineral Springs' (1842), contains a sketch 

 of i^ ceoloCT (pp. 34-50, with coloured map), botany (pp. 5o-57)> ^nd zoology. 

 tlsA^rZ It is surprising to find how little has been since done -t so pop u a 

 rJorL and Lankester's work is in part. the basis of this ^^^^f-'"-, .^^^^at later 

 information there appears to be is at pp. 212, 220 374 of Davis and Lees 'W^^t York- 

 shire ' also in Lees' * Flora of West Yorkshire.' Copies of the circular of the 

 m etingheldat Askern May 20th, 1886, may still be had from the Secretaries 

 price 3d and full details of the observations then made will be found m the 

 ^Naturalist' for 1886, pp. 189, 190, 212, 213, 279. ■ ■ -■ 



GEOLOGY.— The section will be officially , represented by one of its 

 Secretaries, Mr. J. W. Slather, F.G.S. 



Mr T ^V. Davis. F.S.A.,'etc., writes as follows :— Askern is situated at the 

 eastern extremity of the Upper Magnesian Limestone. At the railway station and 

 for a Siort dSce towards the town, the limestone is hidden beneath_ alluvial 

 deposits of laminated clays and warps. Beyond^the town the ground rises coiv 



siderably towards CampsaU. The Upper Magnesian I'^^^^f,°^y^/2 ,^1 Ma Is 

 miles 10 the western extremity of CampsaU; it rests upon the Middle Red Marls 

 exposed on CampsaU Common and round CampsaU Mount ; these are superimposed 

 on the Lower Magnesian Limestone which occupies the surface beneath 1 arnsdale. 

 The Lower Limestone is exposed in several quarries, often near the roadside^ U 

 varies considerably in its character from a flaggy limestone, with thin beds oi 

 coloured marls, to thick irregular beds of yeUow limestone which are soft as a rule 

 but are occasionally hard and crystalline. A number of fossil moUusca have been 

 found in the quarries further south, but in this neighbourhood fossils are either ^ 

 absent or have not been recorded. 



The Middle Marls arc not often exposed except in waicr courses, but their 

 presence is generally indicated, when not too thickly covered with drift, by the reO 

 and wet soil and the springs thrown out at their junction with the hmestone above. 

 Thev consist of red and variously coloured maris, with occasional sandstones ana 

 beds of gypsum. The Upper Limestone may be seen in a quarry haU-a-mile north 

 of Askern ; it is thinly bedded, hard, flaggy, and of a grey or ye dowish colour U 

 is fossiliferous, containing Axinm dubius Sch. and iVyalbna hansmannu Goldt. 



' ■ Near Askern to the S.W. a large section is exposed of Estuarine beds. _ The 

 boulders forming these have probably been derived from glacial clays ^birmg a 

 submergence of the land. The beds exposed are about sixty feet thick. At tnc 

 base is a bed of sandy clay, above this is a l^ed of nearly pure sand and then a con- 

 siderable thickness of more or less rounded gravel, mainly derived from the rocKS 

 in the neighbourhood. The mass is current bedded, and sand, pebb.es, and larga 

 boulders are intermingled without any arrangement. 



" The flat lands of Askern Common are to a large extent marshy and contain 

 mimerous peat beds, full of stumps of trees amongst which have been found antleis 

 of red deer ; remains of lacustrine origin are plentifub In the helds a little east- 

 ward of the town the ground two or three inches below the surface is composed or 

 the mud of an old lake, which contains innumerable shells of land and freshwater 

 moUusca of the genera Limncea, I'lanorbis, Bythmia, Valvata, Zua, Helix, etc. . 



r 



. BOTANY.— The Botanical Section will be officially represented by Mr. 

 P.P. Lee, President; and Mr. A. tL Pawson, and Mr. Charles Crosslancl, 

 two of the Secretaries of the Section. 



Mr P. F. Lee reports as follows :— At the former visit "to Askern, about a 

 month earlier in the year than the present one, the flooded country P'^evented mucu 

 work being done by this Section. The typical flora of Askern favours ^he ditches 

 and watery places, and is only at the apex of its normal development m au unm, 

 but should the weather be favourable this time, after the glorious spring and font, 

 succession of sunny days, the botanists may be quite certaui of making good bags. 



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