30i 
GEOLOGICAL SECTION OF THE YORKSHIRE 
NATURALISTS’ UNION AT HULL.* 
In recent years it has been felt that in many of our scientific societies 
there has been a tendency to specialise, with the result that the beginner 
has not been able to follow the discussions, and the work of the societies 
has been left in the hands of fewer and fewer each year. With the object 
of bringing things back to the old regime, to some extent, the President 
of the Yorkshire Naturalists’ Union, Mr. T. Sheppard, F.G.S., issued 
invitations to a conference at the Hull Museum on Saturday, November 
7th, and at this no fewer than fourteen papers were read, in addition to 
which there were many interesting exhibits of geological specimens, maps, 
diagrams, etc., and some unusual experiments with the magic lantern 1 
There was a most satisfactory response to the invitation, there being 
representatives present from Manchester, Leeds, Bradford, Middlesbrough, 
Sheffield, Barnsley, Crosshills, Scarborough, Goole, etc. The conference 
was most successful, and it was decided to hold another next vear at 
some other centre in the county. 
During recent years a marked renascence has taken place in the 
Naturalists’ Union as an organisation of natural history workers, and 
various sectional gatherings have been held with the result of greatly 
stimulating observation and research in the county. The meeting on 
Saturday was the first of its kind held by the Geological Section, though 
various geological committees have been at work with more or less energy 
for forty years. Mr. J. J. Burton (Middlesbrough) presided. In the 
course of the proceedings officers were elected for the various committees, 
and the visitors were entertained to tea by the Hull members. 
Professor Kendall (Leeds University) initiated the proceedings with an 
address on the origin of the lakes of Yorkshire. 
Mr. T. Sheppard laid before the meeting, on behalf of Mr. C. B. 
Newton, the Waterworks Engineer for Hull, the results of recent sink- 
ings in the chalk for the improvement of the municipal water supply 
of Hull. The most interesting feature revealed in the borings was the 
presence beneath the glacial boulder-clay of an immense thickness of 
crushed chalk, or 1 grut, ’ the condition of which was, it was suggested, 
due to the former extension over Holderness of the great glaciers of the 
North Sea. 
An interesting discussion took place on the subject, Professor Kendall 
endorsing the suggestion of the origin of the crushed chalk, and putting the 
matter in the phrase, ‘ the glacier slid over Holderness on ball-bearings of 
chalk grut.’ 
Mr. George Sheppard laid before the meeting some important 
work in the investigation of the fossils of the chalk which threw new light 
on the identification of the beds with those of the chalk of the South of 
England. 
Mr. J. W. Stather, gave an account of the glacial clays on the 
Holderness coast. He said that twenty- five years ago Mr. Clement Reid 
in a memoir classified the glacial clays in four divisions, Hessle clav (at 
the top), purple clay (in two divisions) in the middle, and a basement clav. 
At first the divisions are not very apparent, but a close examination of the 
sections shows that the Survey classification is the correct one. On one 
occasion when a great wash of sea cleared away the shore at Dimlington 
he had found a good section in the lowest bed. This was of greenish clay, 
highly charged with Arctic shells, and coarse quartzites, but without 
any pebbles of Carboniferous rocks. The basement beds and the purple 
* We are indebted to the excellent reports in The Yorkshire Observer 
and other papers for these particulars, and to the former for the report 
of Professor Kendall’s address. 
1914 Dec. 1. 
