Extracts from the Minute Book of the Geological Society. 61 S 
agitation of the sea, the sand became so blended with it, that the 
fish were suffocated. No flat-fish were found dead ; the greatest 
quantity of fish were found in shallow sandy bays : such effects 
have not occurred in the memory of the oldest man now living* 
iC We may judge of the uncommon depth to which the agitation 
of the sea reached during that storm, from the known depth at 
which the above sorts of fishes are generally caught ; thus eels are 
fished in fifteen fathoms, and cod in from twenty to thirty fathoms ; 
but it appears that at the approach of a storm, fishes of any kind 
go before it, passing into less deep water than they use to live in. 
It is admitted that the agitation of the sea in the most violent storms 
does not usually penetrate to more than seven feet deep.” 
1817, Nov. 21. 
An extract of a letter from Robert Austin, Esq. m. g. s. of 
Bridgewater, was read ; it was accompanied by a specimen of 
coralloidal arragonite. 
“ You are aware that the chief material of the Quantock Hills 
in this county is grauwacke, and that they are penetrated through 
a great part of their length by a vein of mountain limestone. In a 
quarry, situate six miles to the west- south-west of Bridgewater, 
near the village of Merridge, is a fissure in this limestone rock, 
which for a few years past has been famous for producing 
calcareous stalactites and stalagmites of considerable beauty, but not 
very essentially different from those produced in many limestone 
caverns of this and other countries ; this fissure has lately been 
somewhat cleared and explored to a greater extent than before. 
“ I visited this place about three weeks since, and after working 
my way in the fissure of the limestone to the distance of about 
forty yards from the entrance, I found the passage there so contracted, 
