IV 
Journal of Proceedings. 
The bed has from 12 to 17 ft. of gravel lying over it, and was undoubtedly 
deposited in the estuary of a river ; over this has accumulated the London 
Clay, but the River Lea, flowing on through countless years, has worn 
away the London Clay, firstly exposing these beds known as the ‘ Wool¬ 
wich series,’ and then piled on them the accumulation of river gravel that 
lies there. Here, then, we have beds, lying not far from the surface, that 
originally lay beneath the London Clay, and for some distance along the 
Lea Valley it is well known that the London Clay is very thin, or is gone 
altogether. 
“Mr. E. T. Newton, of H. M. Geological Survey, kindly named the 
fossils and identified the stratum for me. 
“ Objects placed in the museum of the Club to illustrate the above 
note :— 
“1. Semi-indurated mass of mud containing Cyrenas. 
2. Specimens of Cyrena cordata. 
3. Washings from the mud. 
4. Micro slides (2) containing smaller fossils, simply mounted as opaque 
objects for preservation.” 
Mr. N. F. Robarts remarked that it was satisfactory to learn that the 
strata referred to by the author had been authoritatively identified, since, 
so far as he was aware, there was no known exposure of the Woolwich 
and Reading beds in that part of Essex. He referred also to the author 
having spoken of the Woolwich beds as fresh-water deposits, whereas he 
believed they were marine and estuarine. He congratulated Mr. Wire on 
having made an addition to the knowledge of these beds by discovering 
the remains of a shell hitherto unknown to palaeontologists as coming 
from these strata. It was an example of the really useful work which the 
members of the Club might do. 
Mr. Wire replied that Mr. Newton could not at first believe that the 
shells actually came from a stratum at Leyton, but on sending him speci¬ 
mens of the mud itself, he (Mr. Newton) had determined it to be of the 
Woolwich series. 
Prof. Boulger had very little doubt from what he had seen of the speci¬ 
mens that the stratum described by the author was a portion of the 
Woolwich series, but he would like Mr. Wire to ascertain the horizon, as 
it was very important to know in wdiat part of the Woolwich series it was 
situated. 
The President said he might remind their geological members that in 
the Ordnance Survey maps a patch of the Woolwich and Reading beds 
is laid down at Stratford and West Ham, and another between Wennington 
and Stifford. 
Mr. English exhibited a young female specimen of the Scaup Duck 
(Fuligula marila, Linn.) shot on October 15th, 1881, by Mr. W. Ainger, 
as it was flying up from a pond about half a mile from Epping, in the 
parish of They don Garnon, being the first recorded appearance of the bird 
in the Forest district. The day previous had been very boisterous and 
stormy, and no doubt the duck had been driven inland by the gale. The 
