PROCEEDINGS 
OF THE 
JUNE, 1866. 
GENERAL EXCURSION. 
Tuesday, June 12th. — The first excursion for this season took place 
this day, to the neighbourhood of Charfield. Owing to the early part of 
the day being very wet, several were prevented from attending who had 
taken tickets, and the number of the party was smaller than usual, but 
those who had sufficient faith in the weather to set forth, were rewarded 
by a tolerably fine day, no rain falling until the excursion was over. 
The members and their friends left Bristol by the 11.10 a.m., Midland 
train, and on their arrival at Charfield station, the principal geological 
features of the surrounding country, as well as the proposed route, were 
explained by the President, Mr. W. Sanders, F.R.S., F.G.S., with the aid 
of his very accurate geological map of the district. A good example of 
greenstone trap, coming up through the Silurian beds, in a field close to 
the railway, beyond the station, was first visited, and Mr. Sanders drew 
the attention of members to the vescicular structure of the igneous trap 
rock, easily breaking in any direction, and therefore unfit for almost any 
practical purpose, except road-mending, as contrasted with the regular 
structure of a rock deposited by water, the "joints" of which were taken 
advantage of by quarrymen in obtaining stones for building and paving. In 
crossing the fields, the botanists obtained some very fine specimens of 
Conia maculatum, and later in the day the Digitalis was observed in 
flower, very early for the season. Avering Green was next visited, where 
commences a remarkable ridge of trap-rock, which is about three quarters 
of a mile long ; pursuing this for a short distance, the party followed a 
footpath and lane to Damory Bridge, where a quarry of very siliceous 
igneous rock was examined, which on a former occasion had yielded 
specimens of the rare mineral prehnite. On the hill above this, an ancient 
encampment was visited, whence a fine view of the surrounding country 
was enjoyed. The rock at the sides of the lanes in this neighbourhood 
