president's address. 243 



shadowed depths of the beautiful fern-fringed ravines, would 

 have formed an excellent terminus of the excursion. This being 

 certainly one of the most lovely spots in the county, as my friend 

 Mr. John Hancock will bear me witness, it has been proposed 

 some time since as a suitable place for an autumnal Field Meet- 

 ing, and could be best reached from Eeedsmouth Station, walk- 

 ing thence on some future occasion when, we may hope, the 

 weather will prove more propitious, to "Wark Station, following 

 the windings of the river banks. 



Before leaving the historic Mote-Hill, which is a mass of gravel, 

 apparently cut into its present shape by the action of water, 

 Mr. Hugh Miller, P.G.S., of H.M.'s Geological Survey, was 

 good enough to point out to us two of the natural curiosities of 

 the neighbourhood, which he had observed in the Warksburn, 

 which enters the North Tyne about a hundred yards to the 

 south. One is an interesting section displaying old Sigillaria 

 stems in an upright position above coal a short distance above 

 the bridge, the only example of the kind met with in the district 

 around Wark, although even better examples are probably known 

 to many of the members as occuring elsewhere in the Carbonife- 

 rous strata of Northumberland and Durham. About half a mile 

 above the bridge the other may be noticed. It is a curious 

 " petrified cascade." A deposit of calcareous matter, from the 

 hard water dripping over a fall some fifteen feet high, has 

 solidified in the form of a nearly vertical rush of water, much 

 in the same way as a spar pillar is formed inside a cave. Mr. 

 Miller mentions, that he has not before seen anything like it, 

 and it, no doubt, deserves to be considered one of the " wonders 

 of Wark" by the numerous summer visitors, who are attracted 

 by the beauty of the scenery and the salubrious air to the long- 

 sequestered valley of the North Tyne. I may add that he in- 

 tends to favour our Society this year with a memoir on the 

 special geological features of this district, which I need not say 

 will be welcomed by us all as coming from so competent an 

 observer. 



Having lingered quite long enough, however, on this elevated 

 "coigne of vantage," particularly when the relentless showers 



Q 



