186 
THE GEOLOGIST. 
and brilliant enougli to give a lustre even to tlie cheek of beauty." ATitli 
the assistance of a ground-plan of colliery workings, Mr. Wood explained 
the wonders of a pit, with its upcast shaft, its downcast shaft, its furnaces, 
engines, its cages and its levels, the wonderful and yet simple history of 
its ventilation, the mode of winning the coal, the colliers as they worked. 
It is the habit too much, the lecturer said, to blame colliery proprietors for 
carelessness. He believed that great and vigilant care was used, if not 
alone from the sense of right and duty yet at all events from the fear of 
accidents, which were destructive to property in a manner ruinous in the 
extreme. Legislative interference was, he believed, too much and some- 
what ignorantly asked for. Our colliery population Mr. Wood estimated 
at 1,500,000, of whom 400,000 were men and boys actually employed in 
the pits. Mr. Wood described most feelingl}^ and eloquemly the daring 
and endurance of the men who, day after day, worked purely from the love 
for their fellow-men, to rescue their poor comrades at the late accident at 
Hartley. He then detailed with most engaging particularity the objects 
to be seen within the collier's cottage, throughout which there m as mar- 
vellous, almost painful, neatness and cleanliness. The collier's wife never 
thinks of reducing her fire ; her room is always at a roasting temperature ; 
and when at last nature can no longer stand it. she opens the door, and 
this constantU', be it winter or summer. Mr. Wood concluded his lecture 
with so]ne very amusing anecdotes. 
Manchester Geological Society. — Fehruary 25. — The propriety of 
forming a local fund for the relief of widows dependent upon coal-miners 
killed or hurt, was the subject of some discussion. The papers read 
■were : — 1. " On Mr. Aytoun's Patent Safety Cage for Miners." By Mr. 
J. J. Landale, Mining Engineer, Edinburgh. 2. " On the Gases met 
with in Coal-Mines. and the General Principles of Ventilation." By J. J. 
Atkinson, Esq., H. M. Inspector of Mines for the South Durham district. 
LiTERPOoL Geological Society. — March 24^th. — The president, 
Henry Duckworth, F.L.S., F.G.S., read a paper "On Flint Implements 
from the Drift : being a description of a visit to Amiens and AbbeviDe 
during the summer of 1861." 
Mr. Duckworth did not discover any worked flints himself, but he exhi- 
bited several very characteristic specimens, some of them being obtained 
from tiie quarrymen, and others presented to him by Monsieur Boucher 
de Perthes and Monsieur Pinsard. Mr. Duckworth also exhibited a 
human skull, which he disinterred from the brick-earth bed, in what was 
stated to be a somewhat unusual position. The paper was illustrated by 
drawings of sections, etc. In conclusion. Mr. Duckworth remarked that 
in examining these Drift beds both at Amiens and Abbeville, but more 
especially at the former place, it seemed to him that they must have been 
deposited very rapidly. There is no evidence whatever, so far as he could 
judge, of any very slow or gradual formation ; and the impression left 
upon his mind was that they have been produced by some sharp and 
sudden catastrophe. 
" On the Strata of the Storeton Quarries, near Liverpool." By G. H. 
Morton, F.G.S. 
After referring to the Keuper formation as it occurs near the town of 
Liverpool, the strata of Storeton (in Cheshire) were described as belonging 
to the lower part of that formation. The base is a conglomerate, several 
feet thick; strata of white and yellow sandstone with several beds of 
shale and marl suco-eed, the thickness altogether being about 200 feet. 
About 130 feet from the base of the formation there is a bed or band 
of sandstone, three feet ihii k, with two or three seams of marl, and 
