PROCEEDINGS OF GEOLOGICAL SOCIETIES. 



377 



PROCEEDINGS OF GEOLOGICAL SOCIETIES, 



Geological Society of London. 



In the report of the proceedings of the Geological Society of London, 

 given in onr last number (p. 365), we inserted the abstract of Mr. 

 Powrie's paper on the Old Red Sandstone of Forfarshire, in 'which it was stated 

 that the author " believed that the marls and sandstones at Whiteness (near 

 Arbroath) are not unconformable, as Sir Charles Lyell has represented them 

 in his published section/ 5 



We are requested by Mr. Powrie to state, that having revisited Arbroath 

 since his paper was read to the Geological Society, he has ascertained that Sir 

 Charles Lyell's section was correct, and that the newer strata alluded to are 

 uncomformable. — Ed. Geol. 



Half a Dai with the Cotswold Club. 



Field natural history excursions diffuse a knowledge of nature's fair creation; 

 they are not vain pursuits ; the sedentary professional man, who is fond of 

 natural science, can therein counteract that strain, stress and tension of the 

 brain, which the wear and tear of life imposes. Besides, are they not agree- 

 able vehicles of a mode of instruction not to be despised in these bookish days ; 

 of a kind of teaching, the value of which we can scarcely overrate, namely, of 

 that peripatetic species that the " stout stagyrite delighted in." Perhaps we 

 are not rash in suggesting that even Aristotle may have been the first founder 

 of field-clubs ! — He certainly, it appears, lectured while walking; the members 

 of his club were dubbed " the walking philosophers," or peripatetics, and as to 

 their president's knowledge of natural history, why " eela va sans dire ." since 

 Cuvier, Forbes, Huxley and many another savan vouch for his careful study and 

 sagacious insight ; and have we not his " History of Animals" and other 

 treatises akin to testify this. Whether further resemblance to our Field-clubs 

 can be traced or not, it is not too much for us to indicate that perhaps they 

 had their annual subscriptions, their dinners " a la carte" and their ladies' 

 days. The latter is at least problematical. The Athenians possessed their 

 accomplished hetserias, and surely it is not too mild to conjecture that 

 ladies may have been admitted to the lecturing saunters of that age !— Be that 

 as it may, field-clubs are an ancient institution, and, with this powerful sanction 

 for them as such, il was not without a heightened pitch of expectation that 

 we determined to get off for a day's ramble with one of the West of England 

 Societies. We were told by a member that they usually reckoned on doing 

 from twelve to fifteen miles at a ta.ru ; this much is not an inordinate dose, 

 thought we, and will well oxygenate the blood. So we prepared to start 

 e * over the hills and far away," and join the Cotteswold Society. This society 

 does not rank among the ephemerals ; it is of some standing ; its transactions 

 are quoted ; and it has inscribed on its list some choice names, such as 

 Daubeny, Buckman, Strickland, Yoelker, Wright, Brodie, and Symonds. 

 Even compared with the Tyne Club, if not superior, it may certainly be 

 bracketed with it. And then, what a noble field for these explorers, leaving 

 out for the nonce the ecclesological, archselogical, botanical and entomological 

 richness of the shire and only regarding the cathedral city of Gloucester. North, 

 VOL. IV. 2 R 



