Severn Valley Naturalists' Field Club.—The first meeting of the Club this year was held at Great Malvern, the visit lasting from Tuesday to Friday, June 4th to 7th. On the first day visits were made to the quarries and sections of the North Hill, In the evening papers sere rend by Mr. F. Day, of Cheltenham, on "Fish Life;" and the Rev. W. S. Symonds, of Pendock, on "Some of the historical associations around the Malvern Hills." Wednesday, June 5th, the party, joined by members of the Malvern, Woolhope, and Cotteswold Field Clubs, drove to the Herefordshire Beacon and Eastnor. A walk of seven miles, commencing at Wind's Potué, was undertaken under the guidance of Mr. Symonds. The route was by way of the Great Camp and Hermit's Cave to the Camp on Midsommer Hill, thence by the quarry of Greenstone and Diorite in the Holly Bush Pass, by the valley of the white-leaved oak and a series of quarries to the Somers' Arms Inn, Eastnor, from whence the party drove back to Malvern. In the evening Dr. Thos. Wright, F.R.S.E., of Cheltenham, commenced an address on the Palæntology of the Malvern Hills, and Mr. G. W. Hastings described the structure of the hills. On Thursday, June 6th, a visit was first paid to Dr. Grindrod’s fine collection of Silurian fossils, &c. Afterwards the party went by train to Stoke Edith, and Mr. Symonds again acting as guide led the way through the Park to Seager Hill, from which there is a fine view of the Woolhope Valley. Mr. Simonds described the remarkable geological features of the district, The quarries at Dormington were next visited. After tea at the Foley Arms, Tarrington, in the room where Sir Roderick Marchison wrote great part of his "Siluria," the party returned to Malvern, where Dr. Wright finished bis address on the Palæontolosy of the district, and Mr. Simonds narrated the weird legend of the "Shadow of the Rugged Stone." On Friday the party dispersed, after a most enjoyable meeting.
Warwickshire Field Club.—At a recent meeting, Mr. Andrews read a paper, of which the following is an abstract:—"Many years ago I made a commencement to examine the glacial or drift formation in the neighbourhood of Coventry, and collected a great number of specimens, hat] was not able to continue the investigation. Recently, however, I have returned to the subject, and having studied most of the works on the question which hare. appeared during the last few years, I became convinced that it was quite hopeless to make any systematic examination of these formations without a much better knowledge of the topography of the district than we at present possess. I therefore resolved to make a new survey of the county, or if that were not possible, at least of the whole of the district round the city of Coventry, and the map now shown is the first instalments of the work. The method adopted in making the survey was very simple, viz., by collecting all the published information that I could as to the altitudes that have been measured, such as the various Ordinance bench marks, the levels of the various canals railways, &c., by using this information as a basis for the survey, and finally by walking over the district, and examining the altitudes by means of an aneroid barometer, and sketching the contour lines on the spot. I have tinted the map with a series of tints in Indian ink, on the principle that if the waters of the ocean were 200 feet above their present level, they would exactly occupy the space covered on the map by the deepest shade, and which is indicated by the figures, 100, 200. If the waters were 800 feet above their present level, they would also occupy the space covered by the next paler shade which is indicated by the figures, 200, 300, and so on. The district covered by my survey, up to the present moment, (December, 1877,) extends from Hinckley on the north, to Harbury Railway Station on the south, and from Branston on the east, to Knowle on the west, and consequently includes about half of Warwickshire. The map is now placed in the reading room of the Free Library, Coventry.
Exchange.
Wanted, Carex stricta, Carex endistans, Scirpus triqueter, for rare plants,—G. C. Druce}, Northampton.
