MEETING OF NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETIES. 
197 
The invitation to meet in Northampton in 1888 was then 
considered, and it was unanimously resolved that the invitation 
be accepted; the exact date to be fixed later on. 
Mr. E. de Hamel was re-elected as Treasurer, and Messrs. 
T. H. Waller and H. J. Eunson as the Secretaries for the 
coming year. 
Votes of thanks to the Malvern Societv, to the officers 
of the Union, and to the President for presiding, concluded 
the proceedings. 
Owing to a very unfortunate concurrence of circumstances 
the usual Conversazione was not held, and it was agreed at 
the General Meeting to substitute for it a drive round the 
North end of the Hills, partly to inspect a very interesting 
find of the Black Cambrian Shales, with characteristic 
fossils, which lias recently been made in sinking a well. 
The arrangements having been unfortunately upset, owing 
to the absence from home of the local Secretary, and a regret¬ 
table misunderstanding as to what was required in the way of 
preparation from the local Society, it was suggested at 
the General Meeting that it would be well to have a clearly 
defined account prepared and printed of what was really 
needed in the case of any Society preparing for a Meeting of 
the Union, and that the Executive Committee might appoint 
a small Committee to have the general care of the preliminary 
arrangements. 
Excursion. 
It had been arranged that on Thursday, July 7tli, the 
members of the Midland Union assembled at Malvern 
should divide themselves in three directions ; one party to 
botanise on Bredon Hill, an outlier of lias and oolite midway 
between the Malverns and the Cotswolds ; another to 
“ archseologise ” at Tewkesbury and the Saxon church of 
Deerhurst; and the third to study the Geology of the Hills. 
However, from various causes theTast-named Excursion only 
was carried out, about forty members uniting under the 
guidance of the local President. 
A portion of the programme had been anticipated on the 
previous evening by a visit to the Syenitic Quarries of the 
North Hill, and to the Cambrian Shales recently found at the 
extreme northern end of the range. These shales have long 
been known at the south end of the Hills, where they are altered 
and upheaved by trappean intrusions of (probably) lower 
Silurian age ; but they had not previously been found further 
north. The patch now found in sinking a well at North 
Malvern seems to have been preserved in a gully of the gneiss 
