240 
REPORTS OF SOCIETIES. 
amethyst quartz, carbonate and sulphate of baryta, calcspar, Ac. The 
drive was then resumed to the Stiperstones, several exposures of 
Llandeiio rock being noticed on the way. On reaching the summit 
and after having climbed to the Devil's Chair, the members opened 
their stores of refreshment and enjoyed a well-earned repast. Then 
the president, Mr. Horace Pearce, F.G.S., gave the following short 
address :—This ridge of the Stiperstones, described by Sir R. Murchison 
as Lingula Flags, Dr. Callaway has shown to be the equivalent of the 
Shineton Shales and Tremadoc Series (as referred to in Mr. D. La 
Touche’s recent admirable work on the “ Geology of Shropshire.’’) 
In this district occur rocks, some of which are among the most ancient 
in these islands, as at the Ercall, Wrekin, and Primrose Hills, the 
Caer Caradoc, Hope Bowdler, and other portions of the Stretton Hills ; 
notably at Pontesbury Hill, or Pontsford, only a short distance from 
the Stiperstones, where not long ago I was interested to find specimens 
of remarkable intrusive and changed rocks, such as Diorite, Felsite, 
varieties of Basalt, and forms of what are now generally reckoned as 
Archaean, singularly varied and intermixed in a small area about this 
hill, changing often in a few yards in a striking degree. These have 
been described by Dr. Callaway, and are most interesting to study on 
the spot. Then, again, we find these primeval rocks, if I may so 
term them, occurring further north; largely seen in some of the 
Hebrides, those wild islands off the West Coast of Scotland ; and 
probably more instances of their being found on the surface will yet 
result, for I cannot but think they are not yet fully investigated, the 
intrusions and faultings being so frequent and so complex, while the 
present openings in the hills are, comparatively speaking, so few, and 
at intervals so great. These Archaean rocks are closely allied to the 
Laurentian of Canada, which are also still under discussion, and, as 
probably forming the original backbone of our islands, have an interest 
of great extent, especially when we remember the enormous range of 
their development in the remote past, followed by denudation of pro¬ 
portionate magnitude. For I would remind you, in relation to this 
subject, that Professor Hull considers that in a far-gone geological age 
there existed a vast tract of this most ancient land, where part of the 
North Atlantic Ocean now is, what one may call an old Continental 
Area of land, the ruin of which went largely to build up subsequent 
formations, themselves to suffer degradation, in the sense of being 
worn down, to form rocks of enormous thickness in ages still geologically 
nearer our own brief period. Of this old land there are here and there 
the fragments, such as those worn Hebrides, still suffering the wasting 
of the ocean storms. And upon this subject of denudation or disin¬ 
tegration of rocks we should remember that this bold, castle-like crest 
of the Stiperstones is but a trifling portion, a mere relic of once great 
and lofty masses; just as Snowdon is but an inner relic of its once 
gigantic substance—frost, lightning, air, and water having worn down 
that great mass into the picturesque mountain we now admire.—Mr. 
Pearce then read to members present some extracts from La Touche’s 
“Geology of Shropshire” upon this district. Mr. W. Madeley also 
mentioned the interesting fact that Dr. Callaway had discovered that the 
strike of these Archaean hills was not originally in accord with their 
present trend, showing that they were parts of chains of hills which 
have been subjected to an enormous amount and length of erosion, and 
represent but the ruins of former mountain chains. The botanists 
were not at all fortunate in finding the rare plants which are noticed 
as occurring on these hills, owing, no doubt, to the long dry season ; 
the only plants which were reported were Empetrum nigrum and 
Vaccinium Oxycoccus and Vitis-Idcea. 
