THE ESSEX FIELD CLUB. 127
The meeting was announced as under the directorship of Mr. Whitaker, F.R.S.,
and Mr. Walter Crouch, F.Z.S., but owing to Mr. Crouch's sudden illness on the
day, the onus of conducting the meeting fell upon our honorary member, Mr.
Whitaker. It is only just also to record the great assistance rendered by Mr. T. V,
Holmes, who, in conjunction with Mr, Crouch, visited the spot previous to the
meeting, and drew up the programme.
At Laindon Hills Railway Station the attention of the party was directed to
the deep boring which was being made for a well in order to obtain a supply of
water from some water-bearing bed below the impervious London Clay which
there forms the surface. Mr. Legrand, the gentleman superintending the execution
of this work, was purposely present at the station and kindly gave much informa-
tion about this boring. From him we learned that the depth then reached was
444 feet. And from his remarks, and from samples of the material brought up
from various depths, we ascertained that the uppermost 342 feet of the boring were
in London Clay. Immediately below the London Clay were :—
And the beds below a depth of 366 feet, were all more or less sandy. Mr. Legrand
also stated that the nodules of Septaria found in London Clay were the only sources
of difficulty to the borer in that formation.
Leaving the railway the party turned southward and ascended Laindon Hills,
whose summit is about a mile away. On reaching the top the party was con-
ducted for a distance of some two or three hundred yards along the road which
ranges in an easterly direction towards Dry Street and Vange, to a spot where>
on the northern side, there is a pit showing twelve feet or more of Bagshot sand
below three or four feet of loamy material. Here a heavy shower of rain fell, and
Mr. Whitaker, looking down on the umbrellas of his attentive audience, discoursed
on the geology of Laindon Hills, and the surrounding district. At the Railway
Station (he said) they had learned that the thickness of the London Clay was
342 feet. Here the surface of the ground was more than 100 feet higher
than at the station, and as the beds were lying nearly flat, they would have to add
some 100 feet to the thickness pierced at the station to obtain the full amount for
the London Clay of that district. The sand before them was certainly Bagshot
sand, and in all probability Lower Bagshot. If anyone present thought it Middle
or Upper Bagshot, he would remind that person that with the maker of that
assertion lay the onus probandi, the natural presumption being that it was Lower
Bagshot. Above this sand they saw a few feet of loam, and in the surface
workings at the top of the hill, near the "Crown" Inn, they had seen gravel, the
exact age of which was doubtful, though it was certainly of later date than the beds
before them.
The rain having ceased the party then retraced its steps a few yards and walked
through Coombe Wood, reaching the road to Horndon-on-the-Hill, a few yards
south of its junction with that leading to the old church. On the eastern side of
the Horndon road the gravel capping the hill has been much excavated.
Examination of one of the deepest of these sections—none of which are of any
great size—showed, below pebbles in a very sandy matrix, sand like that seen in
the pit just visited. Mr. Whitaker and Mr. H. B. Woodward were, consequently,
inclined to think that though there might be some ancient drift gravel (like that at
Shooter's Hill and elsewhere) on the top of Laindon Hills, yet that there seemed