THE GEOLOGIST. 
79 
inspection of the celebrated Caverns, which were kindly lighted up by the per- 
mission of Lord Ward, who, unsolicited, offered this act of courtesy to the Clubs. 
The lighting up of these caves, or rather old deserted quarries, had a most striking 
effect, and was greeted with loud cheers by the numerous body of spectators. The 
united Clubs afterwards dined together at the hotel, and a few brief scientific 
disquisitions— in which Dr. Grindrod, Mr. Brodie, Mr. Lees, &c., took part — 
terminated a very pleasant and interesting excursion. The united Clubs formed 
a large party, numbering twenty-seven persons, including Mr. Salter, of the 
Geological Survey. 
The third meeting of the season took place at Coventry, on the 11th of August. 
The members assembled at the King's Head Inn at 11.30, and proceeded to the 
Wyken Colliery, for the purpose of inspecting a portion of the Warwickshire 
coal field. Mr. Whittem, the owner of the pits, here explained the character and 
extent of the coal-bearing strata in the district, which was clearly illustrated by 
a section of one of the pits. The party being duly equipped in miners' dresses, 
went down the shaft with comparative ease and safety, and descended about three 
hundred feet into the bowels of the earth, under the guidance of Mr. Whittem and 
the foreman of the pit. Although the examination of the coal in situ was attended 
with considerable labour, those present were amply repaid for the instruction 
afforded them by a personal inspection of a deposit which is one of the most 
valuable and important in the world. It is very rarely that the coal itself appears 
at the surface, as most other formations do, and therefore it can only be seen and 
worked at a considerable depth underground ; and the members of the Field Club 
were glad to avail themselves of this opportunity of seeing the way in which it 
■was obtained, and the position it occupied with reference to the new red sandstone 
formation, which it underlies. On their return to the pit's mouth, there was 
only sufficient time to examine the quality of the ironstone associated with the 
coal at another pit, and to bestow a hasty look at a large steam-engine used for 
forcing up the water from below, which was of excellent quality, and of a slightly 
mineral character. 
The Warwickshire coal-field is of limited extent, the principal pits being at 
Sowe (its south-eastern limit), Wyken, Bedworth, and Nuneaton. It is more or 
less afi'ected by faults, and a considerable upthrow of trap-rock occurs in 
one part, where it is extensively quarried, and is similar to that at HaitshitI, 
which is another outburst of the same igneous deposit, and may be traced at 
intervals as far as Charnwood Forest, in Leicestershire. The quality of the coal 
is variable, the best being tolerably good. The shale and ironstone associated 
with it contain the usual carboniferous plants, and, in places, shells belonging to 
the genera Unio and Mytilus, and an entire and, probably, new species of Limulus, 
were found at Sowc Colliery some years ago, by the Rev. P. B. Brodie. At 
Bedworth there is a strong band of fresh-water limestone, containing spirorbis 
(microconchus) carbonarius, which has also been detected in the Leicestershire, 
Shropshire, and Lancashire coal-fields. This limestone does not occur at Wyken 
and Sowe. 
A few members who arrived late visited several churches and other places of 
archaeological interest, for which the ancient city of Coventry is famous, and at 
four o'clock the party, now nearly twenty in number, sat down to dinner. After 
the usual business of the Society had been transacted, Mr. Whittem, at the 
request of the President, made a few additional remarks on the coal formation of 
the district, and Mr. Brodie gave a short account of the discovery of a new and 
