380 Geological Society : — 



action of land ice, and the probable effects of a low temperature 

 are described and illustrated by those observed on the plateaus 

 around Chang Cheumo in Tibet. 



3. " On the Fructification of Zeilleria (Sphenopteris) delicatula, 

 Sternb., sp., with remarks on Ursatopteris (Sphenopteris) tenella, 

 Brongn., sp., and Hymenophyllites (Sphenopteris) quadr {dactylites, 

 Gutb., sp." By R. Kidston, Esq., F.G.S. 



4. " On the Eecent Encroachment of the Sea at Westward Ho !, 

 North Devon." By Herbert Green Spearing, Esq. Communicated 

 by Prof. Prestwich, M.A., F.R.S., Y.P.G.S. 



The author stated that for the last nine years the sea has en- 

 croached near Westward Ho ! at the rate of about 80 feet annually. 

 The encroachment affects only about a mile of the coast-line, but the 

 sea has gradually worn away part of the Northam Burrows — a 

 sandy common forming the southern portion of the united delta of 

 the Taw and the Torridge, — and partially removed a broad ridge of 

 pebbles which formerly defended the coast-line, the pebbles of 

 which, derived from a raised beach, travel in a northerly direction 

 towards the mouth of the river. The sea tends to cut a way through 

 the lower part of the Burrows, isolating part of the pebble ridge 

 and forming a new mouth to the river. The inroads of the sea have 

 laid bare a submerged forest, composed chiefly of oak, birch, and 

 hazel, and containing bones of ox, sheep, deer, dog, pig, and goat, 

 with flint cores and chips, and shells of oysters, limpets, periwinkles, 

 &c. The woody layer, 18 or 20 inches thick, can be traced for 

 400 yards to extreme low-water mark ; it rests on blue clay, which 

 is 4 feet thick under the pebble-ridge, but thins to seaward. It 

 contains estuarine shells. Below it is a layer of rounded pebbles. 

 Near the mouth of the river patches of shelly sandstone rest on the 

 clay, resembling that seen near Croyde, on the north side of the bay. 



In 1874 a pebble beach sloped to the sea from the frontage of the 

 building land at Westward Ho ! The pebbles have now disappeared, 

 and a cliff of clay, 15 feet high, occupies the spot. Near the Ladies' 

 Baths this clay rests on rock of Carboniferous age, but nearer the 

 Burrows, to the northward, a layer of sand intervenes, and, being 

 easily washed away, facilitates the removal of the clay. To the 

 north and east the clay thickens and is mixed with pebbles, many 

 of which are broken. This may be due to glacial action, but no 

 scattered stones have been observed. So long ago as 1600-1630 

 records of encroachments exist. 



5. " On further Discoveries of Footprints of Vertebrate Animals 

 in the Lower New Bed of Penrith." .By George Yarty Smith, Esq., 

 F.G.S. 



June 11.— Prof. T. G. Bonney, D.Sc, F.R.S., President, 

 in the Chair. 

 The following communications were read : — 

 1. " The Range of the Palaeozoic Rocks beneath Northampton/' 

 By Henry John Eunson, Esq., F.G.S. 



The author referred to a shaft sunk at Kingsthorpe, near North- 



