398 
THE LAST DECADE. 
coal milling, which will be found printed in the Society's proceedings. 
At the first general meeting at Halifax, in 1887, a recommenda- 
tion of the council was adopted, that a sum of ten pounds might with 
advantage be devoted to the purpose of investigating a pre-glacial 
deposit at the foot of an ancient escarpment of the chalk near Brid- 
lington, from which portions of the skeleton of an elephant had been 
obtained, and to Messrs. Lamplugh and Boynton, and the honorary 
secretary, was entrusted the duty of superintending the excavation. 
At this meeting Mr.. Tames Booth, F.G.S., presided, andafterwards enter- 
tained the members at his residence. Spring Hall. During the 
summer an excursion meeting was held at Bridlington Quay, and the 
glacial beds exposed by the washing away of the Beaconsfield sea- 
wall were examined ; the excavation of the buried cliff at Sewerby 
was visited, and the party then proceeded to Speeton to examine 
the Speeton clay and the red and white chalk of the cHffs at Bempton, 
Flamborough. Thence the excursion was extended to Filey and Gris- 
thorpe, where the oolitic series are exposed. Mr. Lamplugh acted as 
guide in the first part of the excursion, and Mr. 0. Fox Straiigways 
accompanied the members to Filey and Gristhorpe. 
The year 1887 was the fiftieth anniversary of the formation of 
the Society, and a Jubilee meeting, in celebration of this, was held in 
the Town Hall, Ripon, on October 22ud, 1887. The President, the 
Marquis of Ripon, presided, and Prof J. W. Judd, the president of 
the Geological Society of London, together with Principal Bodington 
and Professors Green and Miall, of the Yorkshire College, were 
present. Professor Judd gave an address on the relation between 
great central societies and local ones, and Principal Bodington on the 
new seats of learning. The meeting was a large one, and the oppor- 
tunity was taken to present the honorary secretary with a valuable 
miscroscope in recognition of his services to the Society, extending 
over a period of more than twelve years. The members afterwards 
dined together at the Unicorn Hotel. 
A paper was read in 1878 by Dr. H. C. Sorby, at that time 
president of the Geological Society of London, on a new method of 
studying the optical characters of minerals. These characters afforded 
a valuable n)eans for identifying the various species, but their 
