Le Ma 
224 THE ORIGIN OF THE [May 1902, 
Bala Fault and the other parallel valleys in North Wales as belonging 
to the same system as the valleys of the Neath, ete., described by the 
Author. He did not infer that the Bala Fault, as a whole, was of 
modern origin, but he believed that a certain amount of displace- 
ment had tuken place along the line of this fault in comparatively 
recent times; and he could see no reason why the Author (who 
attributed the north-east to south-west valleys of South Wales to a 
modern system of earth-movements) should have denied the possi- 
bility of displacement along the Bala Fault during the same period. 
In support of the view that such movements actually had taken 
place in a comparatively recent geological period, he pointed to the 
fact that, whatever might be the nature of the rock on the two 
sides of this fault, the whole country on the south side stood at a 
much higher level than it did on the north. He also observed that 
at least one recent earthquake had taken place along the line of the 
Bala Fault, and that earth-rumblings were commonly heard at several 
farms which stand upon the fault. All this was equally evidence in 
favour of the Author’s views. 
In conclusion, he remarked that the only essential difference 
between his own views and those of the Author, was that the latter 
seemed to think that the north-easterly to south-westerly folds were 
initiated at the same time as the rivers; whereas he (the speaker) 
believed that a general drainage-system was first established, and 
that these folds were subsequently formed across the direction of 
the main drainage-lines, and produced very extensive changes in 
the original courses of the rivers. 
Dr. H. R. Mrrx said that the watershed which coincided with, or 
ran parallel to, the Oolite-escarpment, breached only by the Humber, 
struck him as the most remarkable feature in the hydrography of 
England. ‘There was nothing in the existing configuration to 
account for the position of this watershed; and he asked whether 
the series of events so interestingly outlhned by the Author might 
possibly afford an explanation. 
Prof. Warts thought that the anticline mentioned by the Author 
supplied a necessary modification of Ramsay’s views with regard to 
the origin of the Severn and Thames. The recent age of the move- 
ments postulated by the Author presented little difficulty to those 
who had seen the great effects of recent movements and denudation 
in the North of Ireland and the Inner Hebrides. 
The Presrpenr said that the meeting had had the advantage of 
listening to the inferences respecting the river-drainage of South 
Wales, drawn by a man whose actual work in the field for several years 
past had made him thoroughly familiar with the detailed geology 
of the district in question. It appeared to him that the Author’s 
conclusion, that the apparently complicated drainage-system could 
be simply explained by the theory that it was initiated upon a 
gently sloping Cretaceous rock-mantle which overspread and masked 
the folded and faulted rock-formations of earlier date, and was itself 
locally deformed by later crust-movements having a Caledonian trend, 
was not only new, bet most significant. In lecturing upon the 
