XXX 
PROCEEDINGS OF THE 
geology of that portion of the Ouse valley in which Bedford is 
situated, he said that an immense river must at one time have 
flowed in the valley of the present Ouse, then at a much higher 
level, since which it has cut a gap through the soft clays on which 
it flowed, exposing the underlying harder limestone, and it has 
filled with a bed of gravel twenty feet thick a valley four miles 
in breadth. In this valley we find flint-implements, freshwater 
shells, and the remains of large animals now extinct. 
Crossing the great sheet of river-gravel, some limestone-pits were 
next examined, and on returning to Bedford the members of the 
two Societies assembled in the Bedfordshire Natural History 
Society’s new room in the General Library, where they were 
hospitably entertained at lunch by the Mayor. 
The rest of the day was occupied in a drive to Elstow, the 
birthplace of John Bunyan. The church, a Norman structure and 
one of the few churches in the country with a detached tower, 
was visited, and in it was seen the pulpit in which Bunyan 
preached, presumably removed from Mill Lane Chapel, of which 
he was minister. His cottage also was pointed out in the village, 
and on the Green the old Moot House was seen. 
Field Meeting, 10th July, 1886. 
HITCHIN. 
This meeting was held in conjunction with the Hitchin Natural 
History Club and was under the direction of Mr. "William Eansom, 
F.L.S. The party, which numbered about seventy, proceeded 
from Hitchin to Wilbury Hill, botanising on the way. This hill 
is supposed to have originally been a British and then a Eoman 
earth-work. Taking advantage of the elevated position, ramparts 
have been formed by throwing up the earth from within, thus 
forming an excavation of considerable extent, and from without, 
forming a ditch or fosse now almost obliterated. 
Within the enclosure lunch was served, after which a photograph 
of the party was taken by a member of the Hitchin Club ; aud 
then, from the highest point, commanding an extensive view of 
the surrounding country, Mr. H. George Fordham, F.G.S., gave 
an account of the geology of the district. 
Wilbury Hill, he said, was just outside the London Basin, 
which was formed by the Chalk dipping from the north of Herts 
towards London, where it was covered by thick beds of clay, and 
rising again south of the Thames. The highest hills seen towards 
the south were formed of the Upper Chalk capped with boulder- 
clay, and the ridge of which they were a part was the water- 
parting or line of division between the area of the London Basin, 
the streams in which drained into the Thames, and the area in 
which the streams drained into the Ouse. From this ridge north¬ 
wards lower and lower beds of the Chalk would be passed over, 
Wilbury Hill being on the Lower Chalk. To the north of Wilbury 
Hill the lowest beds of the Chalk, and then the Chalk Marl (with 
