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MOLLUSCA OF HEREFORDSHIRE,

A REFERENCE to pages 201 and 220 will show that Mr. Arthur E. Boycott gave a contribution to the Mollusca of Herefordshire in a paper read at the Field Meeting at Droitwich on August 28th, 1896, and a further contribution on the same subject at the Field Meeting at Bewdley on August 27th, 1897 (see page 296). These papers were reserved in the hopes of publication and insertion at the end of this volume, at the express desire of Mr. Boycott and Mr. Ernest W. W. Bowell, who have conjointly prepared a long paper, covering 260 pages of closely written manuscript, and treating the subject in extenso.

It is with great regret that the Editorial Committee feel themselves compelled to defer the publication of this valuable contribution, the result of many years study, and they only came to this decision upon the resolution of the Central Committee that the work should be placed in the hands of the printers at once, and form the commencement of the succeeding volume of Transactions of the year 1898, with every prospect of its being in the hands of the authors, and issued to the members, early in the year 1899.

The cause of the postponement is due to the faets that, first; the material already printed has assumed proportions sufficiently large to form a volume conveniently portable, and the addition of 260 closely written pages of manuscript would have made the volume inconveniently ponderous; and secondly; the issue of the present volume of Transactions would be tediously deferred for about two months.

RAINFALL. THE BRECON BEACONS.

Mr. J. A. B. Williams, engineer for the construction of the Reservoirs in the Taff-Vawr Valley, has reported to the Cardiff Waterworks Committee that the Rainfall for December, 1897, was the heaviest on record. At the Beacons Reservoir the total for the month was 15 52 inches, of which 3.36 inches fell in one day. This produced a discharge over the overflow weir of 11 inches in depth, equivalent to 260,000,000 gallons per day. During the last month the men have been employed in taking down and removing the huts, and in clearing and re-forming the surface where they stood, and in generally clearing up the works.

OBITUARY.

OUR obituary for 1897 includes the loss of an old and esteemed member, the late Mr. George H. Piper, F.G.S., who died on Thursday, August 26th, at his residence, Court House, Ledbury.

Mr. Piper had been a member of the Woolhope Naturalists' Field Club for 24 years, having been elected in 1873. Twice he held the office of President, in 1883 and in 1886. His geniality, humour, and earnestness in imparting information gained attentive hearers, and secured many friendships. He took a great interest in the cultivation of fruit, and his knowledge of local vintage fruits was of assistance to Dr. Bull in his compilation of The Herefordshire Pomona. He accompanied Dr. Hogg and Dr. Bull to the great Congress of the Pomological Society of France at Rouen in 1884 (see Transactions 1884, page 227), when the representatives secured two gold medals, three silver medals, one bronze medal for their fruit, and a diploma of honour from two Societies for The Herefordshire Pomona, ibid., page 229.

For many years Mr. Piper devoted his attention to the study of Geology, and contributed several papers not only on geology, but on local, historical, and archæological subjects. His papers were concise and carefully finished, and exhibited ability and literary taste.

His collection of local fossils contained some excellent and valuable specimens, and have been found worthy of a position in the Natural History Department of the British Museum at Kensington. A beautiful model of the Cephalaspis and Auchenaspis fishes has been presented to the Hereford Museum by his sister and executor, Miss Piper.

On May 24th, 1883, Mr. Piper, President of the Woolhope Club, read to the members a paper which is recorded in the Transactions, 1883, page 17. In his retiring address on April 26th, 1884 (ibid. page 136), further reference was made to the same subject, and on page 138 the thicknesses of the various beds, 29 altogether, are given, accompanied by a photograph taken from the south, facing the beds, the details of the separate beds being reserved for a future occasion.

For many years Mr. Piper had conceived the project, unfortunately for geologists never matured, of writing a work on the Geology and Physiography of the Ledbury district, in which the details of the various Passage Beds would have been minutely described for the benefit of future explorers. This exposure had been advantageously examined by him during the progress of the enlargement of the railway station yard during the construction of the branch line from Ledbury to Gloucester.

This is an appropriate place for publishing in extenso the paper read to the members in May, 1883, giving a more complete description of each respective bed, and for introducing a photograph of them from a different prospect, taken from the east, looking westwards along the exposed edges of the beds which face

the south. The straight line low down in the left corner represents the summit of the parapet wall over the western entrance of the tunnel, as it appeared in 1885.

The same paper has been read frequently by Mr. Piper to various kindred Societies, e.g. :-On August 30th, 1883, to the St. John's Working Men's Club; on July 21st, 1884, to the Cotteswold Field Club; on July 7th, 1887, to the Midland Union of Natural History Societies; on September 17th, 1891, to the Dudley and Midland Geological Society; and on April 6th, 1896, to the Liverpool Geological Society.

THE PASSAGE BEDS AT LEDBURY.

BY GEORGE H. PIPER, F.G.S.

Read at a Meeting of the Woolhope Field Club, at Ledbury, on Thursday, 24th May, 1883.

THE great Geological Formation known as the "Old Red Sandstone," and the vast range of fossiliferous strata named by Murchison "The Silurian System,” which lies beneath the Old Red, and above the Cambrian Schists, meet conformably on the western flank of the hills which lie on the eastern side of the town of Ledbury. The area of the ancient borough, which is a limited space, and not co-extensive with the town, is entirely of Old Red Sandstone, and the very lowest beds of that important series. The Frith Wood, close by, is Upper Ludlow. Dog Hill, or Robert's Wood, with the large quarry in the Knap Lane, are of Aymestry Limestone, and the Conigre Wood, with the Commissioners' quarries, and the deep rocks near the Pear Tree Walk are of Wenlock Limestone. The sections in Cut-throat Lane are Lower Ludlow. These places are all close to the railway station at Ledbury.

The recent cutting at the eastern end of the great excavation, near the railway station at Ledbury, has laid bare the lowest of the passage beds between the two great systems, and has sectioned and exposed to view all the Upper Silurian Strata down to the Lower Ludlow beds, so that in a few minutes' walk you may in broad daylight examine the true base of the Old Red Sandstone and all the different strata which lie in their exact positions between it and the blue muddy formation known as the Lower Ludlow, which attains here a thickness of several hundred feet, and lies immediately upon the solid beds of Wenlock Limestone.

It may be safely asserted that there is no other spot in the whole world where the exact union of these two great systems may be so readily observed and so thoroughly studied as here, and, in order that a record of the true sequence and dimensions and lithological character of the various bands composing the Passage Beds may be preserved, I have made a careful examination and admeasurements of the whole. This has never before been done. To do this now merely required care and attention, but, in the course of a very few years, weathering, and the growth of weeds, would render it altogether impracticable. Another object was, to identify with precision the few beds which contain the exceedingly rare and interesting fossils found here-some of which are new to science-for I need scarcely say fossils are not scattered everywhere; each has its own peculiar habitat, and some of the larger and more conspicuous of the beds are without fossils. It may he said that, of the true Passage Beds, which here attain a thickness of about 396 feet, some 350 feet are practically without perceptible organic remains; these are principally found in five narrow bands having an aggregate admeasurement of about 20 feet only.

My admeasurements have been taken on the north side of the section, and

in order to have a starting point at once conspicuous and incapabl of removal, I commenced at the narrow bed of Grey Sandstone opposite the end of the Goods shed* in the station yard, and thence proceeded in an eastward direction.

OLD RED SANDSTONE.

1. Grey Sandstone, sometimes nearly cream coloured; exceedingly hard, compact, and gritty; very good building material, but difficult to work. It has no fossils.

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Feet.

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2. Red marls and clays, with a few thin laminated bands of Red and Yellowish-grey Sandstone, much of it highly micaceous and fragile, but other parts compact. Some of the Upper Beds contain a profusion of Foralites, or tube-like markings, the burrows of annelids. These, with a few very imperfect remains of Cephalaspidean fishes, are the only results of very many searches, so that practically these extensive beds will very scantily reward the labours of the Palæontologist. They attain a thickness of

(Pteraspis?)

TRUE PASSAGE BEDS.

3. Ledbury Grits, or Auchenaspis Beds. This formation is divided into two bands, which lie at the top of the true Passage Beds, and are separated from each other by a thin band of blue mud. The Grits are of a light bluish-grey colour, and quartz agglutinated by lime. hard, not entirely free from comparatively indestructible. harder than the lower one, and

consist chiefly of minute fragments of They are very compact and exceedingly appearances of lamination, and are The top band is perhaps a trifle does not yield many perfect fossils,

but contains very many broken up fragments of organisms

4. Blue Mud, lying between the Ledbury Grits; without fossils

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5. Ledbury Grits, Lower Bed. This is the true Auchenaspis Bed. Of the same character as the top band, but not quite so hard. Here are found in great numbers the head and neck plates of Auchenaspis Egertonii and Auchenaspis Salteri, which were first discovered by Henry Brookes, D.C.L., when the railway was constructed in 1858, 1859, and 1860. From the rough gritty nature of the stone the impressions are generally obscure, and the body of the fish is, as yet, unknown in the Grits. This bed has also produced rims of Cephalaspidean head shields, probably Hemicyclaspis Murchisoni, and Cephalaspis Lightbodii, Pterygotus, a large Lingula and Onchus, and probably contains many other species (Plectrodus and Scaphaspis). Much of the rock is filled with black fragments of broken up indistinguishable fish and crustacea.

When the railway was first made, this stone was put aside for copings for bridges and other purposes, but was so difficult and costly to work that, as far as is known, one piece only of it was ever used, and the rest went for ballast

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* Since that period the Goods-shed has been removed to a position further east.

H. C. M.

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