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PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [June 11, 



least in the way of addition, seems scarcely a matter of doubt. But 

 the exact point at which each group began is the point to be ascer- 

 tained; and, although the progress of research has carried back 

 many groups into the older strata which were formerly believed to 

 have had a shorter existence, there seems hardly sufficient reason for 

 inferring that this may be indefinitely extended to all groups, and 

 throughout all the oldest rocks. 



This short notice is intended to place upon a more correct basis the 

 opinion, which still seems a highly probable one, that Fishes existed 

 in the British Isles along with the earliest fauna, which comprehended 

 a variety of marine forms. 



3. On the Elevatory Forces that raised the Malvern Hills. 

 By H. E. Strickland, Esq., F.G.S. 



[This paper was withdrawn by the Author, with the permission of the Council.] 



June 11, 1851. 



The following communications were read : — 



1. Section and Analysis of Permian Beds at Astley, Lanca- 

 shire. By G. Wareing Ormerod, Esq., M.A., F.G.S. 



The Permian beds, of which the Analysis and Section are here given, 

 are situated in the estate of Colonel Ross, in Astley, by the eastern 

 edge of the Township of Bedford, in the Parish of Leigh, in South 

 Lancashire. 



These beds were formerly worked very extensively as a hydraulic 

 lime at the place where these borings were taken, and for this purpose 

 they are still worked in the neighbourhood. A general description 

 of these beds, as existing in South Lancashire, is given by Mr. Binney 

 in the ' Transactions of the Manchester Geological Society,' vol. i. 

 pages 43 to 46 and 54 to 56, and also in his paper "On the relation 

 of the New Red Sandstone to the Carboniferous Strata in Lancashire 

 and Cheshire," in the Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society, 

 vol. ii. pages 22 and 23. 



The fossil remains here found are the same as those described in 

 the first-mentioned paper, at pages 54 to 56, and consist of the 

 Axinus, Avicula, and other Magnesian Limestone fossils. The 

 " Four-foot Coal," the highest coal worked in this district, and the 

 highest workable coal of the middle division of the Lancashire coal- 

 field, is worked under the places where the following bore-holes were 

 made. The bore-hole, marked B in the following sections, is situated 

 about 600 yards to the west of a coal-shaft, being nearly on the strike 

 of the measures from the shaft. In this shaft, as I am informed by 

 Mr. Darlington, the Coal-Lessee, the thickness of the shales and thin 

 seams of coal, overlying the "Four-foot coal," is 351 feet. The Mag- 

 nesian or Permian beds overlie the Coal, and are at the shaft about 



