502 
SECKETARY S REPORT. 
Professor Phillips. The party met at Leyburn on Friday, July 2Gth, 
and. after luncheon, were detained by a heavy tliunderstorm, but by 
inverting the order of the programme the time was well utilised by 
a visit to the interesting private museum of Mr. Wm. Horne, F.G.S., 
who was the official leader of the excursion. Mr. Horne, who has been 
a diligent collector for many years of antiquities and natural history 
specimens, has a great many objects of interest on exhibition, including 
many interesting local fossils and antiquarian finds, and a very 
pleasant and profitable hour was spent in his sanctum. About 
three o'clock a start was made to see the geology of the neighbourhood. 
Under the guidance of Mr. Horne, the party paid a visit to the Black 
Stone Quarries, near Leyburn. These quarries have been worked 
in a band of cherty shale, which forms excellent road metal. The 
extensive operations of past years are shown by the large spoil heaps, 
but only lately has the work been resumed. A clear section was 
exposed, showing well-jointed, regularly bedded rock, with lines of 
cavities containing rotten stone at intervals. Few fossils were found, 
and those were of a fragmentary nature. The extensive quarry in 
the Main Limestone was then visited, and the evenly bedded, well- 
jointed rock examined. The party then crossed the golf links to the 
" Shawl," which is a natural limestone terrace, extending above a 
mile, and laid out as a picturesque promenade. A haze prevented 
the magnificient views along the dale from being enjoyed, and, as 
the saying is, " We viewed the mist, but missed the view." 
On returning to Leyburn a visit was paid to a chert quarry 
worked by Mr. Horne. Here a magnificient bed of chert about four 
feet in thickness is exposed, and a considerable time was spent in 
examining the bed and discussing its formation. The layers were 
much contorted and included wedges of encrinital limestone, now 
mostly converted into silica, but the general aspect of the bed led to 
the belief that it must have been largely formed by siliceous organisms 
in situ, and not as a whole have been due to chemical alteration. By 
a careful microscopical examination alone can the secrets of its co^> 
stitution be explained. 
After dinner at the Golden Lion Hotel, the General Meeting was 
held under the presidency of Mr. Wm. Horne, F.G.S. The Chairman 
