230 T. RUPERT JONES ON PEAT-BOGS.

2. In the Silt (marine) below the Peat:- Walrns. Cockles: Grampus, Mussels. 1878. T. Mellarde Reade, in the Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc., Vol. xxxiv., p. 447, on the submarine forest at Altmoutl1; and at p. 808, on Glazebrook Moss, Lancashire. 1878. Transactions of the Newbury District Field Club, Vol. ii., 1878; Dr. S. Palmer on the Antiquities found in the Peat of Newbury, p. 123, &c., and Appendix by T. Rupert Jones; reprints of Dr. Collet's and Dean Buckland's descriptions of the Peat-formation in the Valley of the Kennet, and various notes on the Newbury Peat; p. 135, p.138, p. 141, &c. 1879. A. Bailey: Overflow of a Peat-bog" in the Falkland Islands. Quart. JOUI'll. Geol, Soc., Vol. xxxv., p. 96. 1879. I combnstibili minerali d' Italia, W. Jervis. Svo., 89 pp. Turin, 1879; The Peat of Italy, in the Alpine Region, Apennine Region, and Islands, pp. 64-89.

EXCURSIoN TO TUNBRIDGE WELLS AND BEACON.

MONDAY, JULY 12TH, 1879.

FIFTH OF THE SERIES. Director.-J. LOGAN LOBLEY, Esq., F.G.S.

(Report by WILLIAM FAWCETr, Es~., B.Sc.) On alighting from the train at Tunbridge Wells, the Members proceeded by way of the Common, where the Director explained the route to be followed, then to the Parade to taste the waters, to the Pump Room, lind, after crossing the boundary of and Sussex, to Broadwater Down. Here, with almost the whole of Tunbridge Wells in view, Mr. Lobley pointed out that the town was built just at the junction of two valleys. The higher ground is Tunbridge Wells Sand, with outlying patches on

* In the Museum of Practical Geology, Jermyn-street, is a good model of a burst Bog in Lanarkshire, EXCURSION TO TUNBRIDGE WELLS AND CROWBOROUGH BEACO~, 231

Common and elsewhere of Weald Clay, while in the valleys Wad­ hurst Clay occurs. The Marquis of Abergavenny had with great courtesy invited Mr. Lobley to conduct the Members through to the Castle, and had very kindly instructed Mr. Rush, of Eridge, to accompany the party, and point out everything of interest in the magnificent domain, one of the oldest enclosed parks in the king­ dom. On arriving at Eridge Castle the Members were most heartily received and hospitably entertained in the Banqueting Hall. Two cannon balls were exhibited, the first made in England. Prof. Morris referred their manufacture to the year 1543 A,D., when the first cannon of English make was produced at the then famous Sussex furnaces. A hundred years later, during the Civil War, many of the furnaces were destroyed, and from that time the gradual extinction of the old forest of the Weald, and the conse­ quent loss of fuel, led to the decline and ultimate cessation in the beginning of the present century of the Wealden iron furnaces. But the loss has only been a local and a temporary oue. Some three or four of the ironmasters of Sussex, finding fuel growing scarce iu their own country, established themselves in Wales, and were the first promoters of the iron-trade of Merthyr Tydvil and Aberdare-a trade which has grown to such vast dimensions in our own day, and has contributed in no small degree to the wealth and influence of the British Empire. Were coal found in Sussex the iron-furnaces might again be lighted, but the increase in prosperity would in the eyes of many be more than counter­ balanced by the change from smiling valleys to a desolate " black country." Before leaving the Castle, Mr. Lobley expressed the thanks of the party to the noble Marquess for his courtesy and hospitality. From the lawn in front of the Castle there is a good view of the well-wooded Wadhurst Clay valley, which forms a large portion of the grand old park. The Eridge Rocks in another portion of the park were examined, and compared in many points with the Toad and . The position of the Eridge Rocks, inasmuch as they are in a sheltered position, seems to militate against a theory of Ramsay's, who has endeavoured to account for the peculiar undercutting by pointing out the enormous force with which the wind files away at the base of the rocks by means of the sand-a natural emery powder. A discussion arose with regard to the 232 EXCURSION TO TUNBRIDGE WELLS origin of the hemisphorical markings; Mr. Lohley suggested that they were structural, and compared them with the" box-etones " of the Sevenoaks quarries; Professor Morris pointed ont that they followed the lines of false bedding. This false bedding proves the existence of "Varying currents in the great river which laid down the Tunbridge Wells Sand as part of its delta. Attention was called to a very" clean" cleft; it is remarkable that these" clefts .. run parallel in a direction nearly N. W. and R.E. After thanking Mr. Rush for his able guidance, the party left Eridge and followed the road to Uckfield. After gradually ascending, they soon found themselves on ground commanding most extensive views as well over the cultivated region as over the wild expanse of , stretching away to the west. Still ascending, Crowborongh was at length reached, and standing on the summit Mr. Lobley reminded the Members that they had now arrived at the anticlinal axis of the Weald, from which the beds dipped north and south; that they had traversed first the long northern slope of the Chalk ridge of the North Downs, had then descended its steep escarpment on the southern side, crossed the Gault vale and, at Sevenoaks, the Lower Greensand ridge, and then the Weald Clay valley of the Medway, followed by the Tun­ bridge Wells Sand ridge and the Wadhurst Clay vale, from which they had ascended the great swelling mass of Ashdown Sands, on which they now stood. The parallel ridge and valley character of the country had been well seen; the long slopes and the escarpments, the varying character and appearance of the country, and the change of vegetation following the change of formation had heen noted. His task, which was to conduct the ASilociation from the London Tertiary Basin to the summit of the Weald, was now completed, and congratulating those who had attended this series of Field Meetings on the fine weather with which they had been favoured, Mr. Lobley expressed his thanks for the co-operation and support of so large a body of the Members during the five days he had had the pleasure of their company in the fair counties of Kent and Sussex. Professor Morris remarked on the absence generally of gravel beds in the Wealden area, and said that where these did occur they went to prove that the direction of the rivers had always been the same, though Mr. S. Wood maintained that the contrary was the case in AND CROW BOROUGH BEACON. 233

the north from the existence of " trnmpet-shaped " gorges in the North Downs. He showed that if the Chalk had covered the Beacon, we should have to account for the denudation of some 3,000 feet, bnt possibly Orowborough Beacon was a bank in the Oretaceous sea. After alluding to the beds in the Boulogne district, he ended with a tribute to the zeal and ability with which Mr. Lobley had conducted the Association. The Members present expressed their very hearty thanks to their Director, Mr. Lobley, and to Professor Morris, and all then hastened to the Station to return to London.

EXOURSION TO LEDBUR Y.

MONDAY, JULY 21sT, 1879, AND FIVE FOLLOWING DAYS.

Directors-G. H. PIPER, Esq., F.G.S., President of the Malvern Field Club j and CHARLES CALLAWAY, Esq., M.A., F.G.S. MONDAY.-The party on arriving at Ledbury were met by their Director-Mr. G. H. Piper, F.G.S.-and proceeded to examine the Ledbury Railway tunnel, about 1,700 yards long. At the W. end the Old Red is seen on either side at an angle of 75° south, and so continues for about 100 yards where it passes into the Downton Sandstone with passage-beds between. In the Old Red Cepha­ laspis, Pteraspis, Pterygotu8, and other characteristic fossils occur. Beyond the Downton Sandstone come the Upper Silurians at first conformably, but afterwards much faulted and repeated as far as the east end of the tunnel, where they are covered with drift in which mammalian remains have been found. At the top of Led­ bury Hill, a good view was obtained of the physical features of the surrounding country. TUESDAY.-The Members visited the district of May Hill. They first examined the exposures of the so-called Longmynd rocks, de­ scribed by Sir R. Murchison as occurring near the village of Huntley. These are dark grey, purplish, and greenish compact rocks, with a high dip, and are well exposed in a quarry on the roadside. The opinion of the Members, conversant with the Longmynd rocks in other areas, was that they resembled those rocks in their mineral character and state of induration. They could not, however, after their previous examination of the Malvern Hills, subscribe to the