PROCEEDINGS OE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETIES. 



261 



Mr. Cunnington exhibited a beautifully-finished flint celt or adze, nine 

 and a half inches long by three wide at the edge, which had been found, 

 with others, during the present year, at Crudwell, near Malmesbury. 



A letter was read from Professor Buckman, accompanied by a geological 

 section, announcing the discovery in Cirencester of a patch of Cornbrash, 

 proving that, as its environs consist of Forest marble and Great Oolite, the 

 town itself is situated in a valley of depression. A letter of thanks from the 

 Geological Society for the contribution to its library of the " Proceedings" 

 of the Club was then read, as was also an invitation to meet the Malvern 

 Club at Dudley, on the 18th of June, from the newly-established Severn 

 Valley Naturalists' Field Club, whose head-quarters are at Bridgnorth. 



The proceedings terminated with a paper by the Rev. S. Lysons, on the 

 " Names of Places in Gloucestershire." 



Manchester Geological Society. — March ?>lst. — A very important 

 paper was read by Mr. Joseph Dickinson, the President, " On the Coal- 

 Strata of Lancashire." 



In the first volume of the Transactions of this Society there are papers 

 " On the Geology of Manchester and its Vicinity," and " On the Geology 

 of the Lancashire and Cheshire Coal-Fields," by Mr. Binney. These 

 papers were given about 24 years ago ; but although so many years have 

 elapsed since they were written, Mr. Dickens testified to the accuracy which 

 characterizes most of the information they contain. The author's purpose 

 in his present paper was to give an account of the whole subject, and, in 

 doing so, to " Tell not as new what everybody knows," but, whilst fully ac- 

 knowledging former authorities, to supply required corrections, together 

 with additional matter of his own. 



The base of the Lancashire coal-formation rests upon the mountain lime- 

 stone, which is seen cropping out near Clitheroe ; within no part of the area 

 of the coal-field, however, are the lower measures so much exposed as to 

 exhibit the limestone. It is covered by a very thick deposit of shales and 

 grit, the thickness of which has never yet been correctly ascertained, but 

 probably thicker than at any other part in England. 



At the boundary between Lancashire and Cheshire the lowest workable 

 coal-seams crop out at Mossley, near Staleybridge ; they then skirt round 

 near the eastern boundary of Lancashire, passing at certain places into 

 Yorkshire (where sometimes, without having cropped out, they dip away 

 again in the opposite direction, and become overlaid by the whole of the 

 Yorkshire coal-field), through to Littleboro'; thence midway between 

 Bacup and Todmorden, passing near the Portsmouth station on the railway 

 between Todmorden and Burnley ; then gradually curving a little to the 

 west, including the Worsthorn quarries, and so on nearly to Colne ; thence 

 turning in a westerly and south-westerly direction, along Padiham Heights, 

 through Simondstone and Read, where the crop becomes very steep, dip- 

 ping almost at an angle of 45°; then, leaving Blackburn outside, they pass 

 through Oswaldtwistle to Eccleshill, Over Darwen, across to Chorley, 

 round by Welsh Whittle, Heskin, and thence to Latham Park and Blague- 

 gate ; then southward, keeping a little to the west of St. Helens. On the 

 south side the coal strata are overlaid by the Red Rock, or New Red Sand- 

 stone, Permian, etc. 



The line thus given forms nearly half a basin, and throughout the entire 

 length the general inclination of the strata is inwards to a centre, — the 

 inclination or dip being very much varied by the different faults with 

 which the basin is divided, from nearly level to an angle of 45°. 



The coal-measures included in this Lancashire field have been divided 

 into three series, namely, — the lower, or Gannister, the middle, and the 



