5°4

EXCURSION TO BOXMOOR.

SATURDAY, APRIL 25TH, 190 8.

D irector .. WILLIAlIl WHITAKER, B.A., F.R. S., F.G .S.

Excursion Secretary .. A. H. WILLIA~IS.

(R~port by T HE DIRECTOR.)

SIR J OHN E VANS had intended to act as one of the Directorsof this Excursion, but he was not well enough to be present,and it is with the greatest regret that we record his death onMay 31St.

A party of twenty assembled at Boxmoor Station early in theafternoon. They included a contingent of the memb ers of theHertfordshire Natural History Society.

The heavy snowfall which had occurred on the day of theE xcursion, and also on the previous day, somewhat interferedwith the proceedings, though it added to the beauty of the walk,except in the brickfields which were th e special object of theExcursion. Fo otpaths had to be avoided, at least until latein the day, and the party went along the road to Bennett'sEnd.

H ere the Acorn Brickfield, west of the haml et, was visited,and a curious section was seen at one part of the pit, a littlesouth-east of the buildings. The loamy basement-bed of theLondon Clay, with two layers of pebbles, but without shells, wasseen in vertical junction with the clay of the Readin g Beds, greyjust at first and then mottl ed. T his sign of marked disturbancewas found to be intensified by the occurrence of Chalk but a fewfeet off, pointing to the probabilit y of a fault , as the Chalk oughtnot to come within about 30 feet of the London Clay.

A hope was expressed that the H ertfordshire Natural H istorySociety would keep an eye (and a camera) on this very peculiarsection. It will be remembered that a fault was seen andfigured many years ago in a neighbouring but now aba ndoned pit.The greater part of the pit is in the superficial brick-earth, whichhere covers both Chalk and T ert iary beds .

A fine section of this brick-earth was seen in another pit onthe western side of the footpath westward of the brickyard, whichshows brown and red bedded loam, somewhat curved and ofconsiderable thickness.

The walk was continued to the Greenfield brickyard atLever-stock Green, where many large blocks of puddingstone havebeen found in the brick earth, as well as long and large flints, someof which had been placed upright in part of the pit, in which

EXCURSION TO CHARLTON AND ERITH. 505

again Chalk was reached in places, sometimes with a trace of theReading Beds (sand).

Finally the Highfield brickyard, northward of Wood LaneEnd, was visited, where masses of pebbles occur in the loam.This pit is notable for the finding of flint implements, as describedby Sir John Evans (Quart. Journ. Ceol. Soc., vol. lxiv., pp. 3-5),whose adoption of Mr. Worthington Smith's view that the brick­earth is a deposit of lacustrine origin was here alluded to.

A trudge of about two miles through the snow brought theparty back to Boxmoor, where a well-earned tea was enjoyed atthe Railway Hotel, and after a vote of thanks to the Director,proposed by Mr. J. Parkinson, the return to London was madeby the 7.35 train.

REFERENCES.

Geological Survey Map, Sheet 7.Ordnance Map, Sheet 238.1889. W. WHITAKER: "The Geology of London," etc., vol. i, pp. 72, 208,

209, 290, 536.1900. UPFIELD GREEN: "Excursion to Boxmoor." Proc, Geoi. Assoc.

vol. xvi, pp. 501, 502.1908. Sir J. EVANS: "Recent Discoveries of Palaeolithic Implements."

Quart. JOlt,·n. Geoi. Soc., vol. Ixiv, pp. 1-7.

EXCURSION TO CHARLTON AND ERITH.

SATURDAY, MAY 2ND, 1908.

Director: A. L. LEACH.

Excursion Secretary: A. C. YOUNG.

(Report by THE DIRECTOR)

THE party, in number about thirty, arrived at Charlton at2.25 p.m., and walked to Gilbert's Pit in Hanging Wood, wherein a fine section of the Lower London Tertiaries the structure ofthese beds is shown very clearly. The Director briefly indicatedthe chief features of interest in the pit, which affords one of thebest general Tertiary sections in the whole London District.From the "bull-head" at the base of the Thanet Sand to theBlackheath pebble-beds, the series is fully represented.

The Thanet Sand, for which the pit is now worked, yields afew internal sand-casts of two species of Pholadomya, andspecimens recently obtained were exhibited on this occasion.The specimens were perfect but very fragile, and every trace ofshelly material had disappeared.

At the junction of the Thanet Sand and the Woolwich Beds