Cviii PEOCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [Jlinei9I2, 



proved to occur at Brabourne ; he also threw out the warning that 

 some of the red rocks might possibly be red-stained Carboniferous. 

 He wished to emphasize the importance of placing the Geological 

 Survey in possession of the details of all deep borings, in order 

 that the facts obtained might be used to the best advantage. 



Prof. W. W. Watts, replying to the point raised by the previous 

 speaker, pointed out that it was the resemblance of the rock of 

 the Southall boring to the other 'red rocks' obtained in the 

 London area which made him suggest to Mr. Procter that he 

 should make a thorough search for fossils in as much of the core 

 as he could obtain for breaking up. Whatever difficulties might 

 be raised by the occurrence of marine Devonian rocks (spoken 

 of as ' Eifelian ' by Prof. Judd) in some of the borings, the 

 Southall case admitted of no doubt, the fish-remains, on Dr. Smith 

 Woodward's authority, being certainly of Upper Old lied Sand- 

 stone age. 



He called attention to the remarkable rock which had been 

 found in so many borings in the Eastern Counties, the Midlands, 

 and the South-East of England. This rock, which yielded at 

 Harwich what was erroneously supposed to be Posidonomya, had at 

 Stutton proved to contain an Ortlioceras of indeterminate species. 

 Similar rock at the Spinney Hills, Leicester, underlay fossiliferous 

 Cambrian rocks ; and it was strange that such a rock occurred at 

 so many underground localities, but was not anywhere recognizable 

 above ground. 



Prof. SoLLAs remarked that the presence of Silurian rocks in the 

 Soutli-East of England, and their distribution so far as it was known, 

 suggested many interesting problems. The Caledonian cbain, so 

 constant to a north-easterly and south-westerty trend for a great part 

 of its course, seemed to curve into conformity with the Armorican 

 chain as it approached those mountains, thus forming an arc convex 

 towards the south, such as would arise under thrusts coming 

 from the north. Observations in North Wales and Scandinavia are 

 in harmony with this view, and the Caledonian chain would thus 

 seem to obey the Asiatic regime. Sutherland remains as a 

 strange exception. The Caledonian chain is confined to a restricted 

 region in Europe, but movements of corresponding age may be 

 looked for elsewhere. Thus the Charnian axis may represent part 

 of a chain which curved away to the south and east, and found its 

 continuation in the axis of Condroz. If so, we should have a 

 Condrozian chain which would have joined the Caledonian by 

 linking, and, like it, have arisen under thrusts from the north. 

 Evidence of this might easily be obscured by subsequent movements 

 of Hercynian age. This view is suggested by the interesting work 

 of Mr. Mackintosh, of Dover, who has brought together many 

 important facts in its support, and is led by them to believe that 

 the Condrozian chain may play an important part in the tectonics 

 of Southern England. 



It is clear, in any case, that speculations based on the views of 

 Godwin-Austen and Marcel Pertrand are not sufficiently trustworthy 

 guides in underground exploration. Nothing less than a systematic 



