162
THE ESSEX NATURALIST
The Club's finances are still fairly stable. The Council are
pleased and grateful to have received a grant of £55, in aid of
publications, from the Royal Society.
ANNUAL REPORT OF THE GEOLOGY GROUP, 1962
Meetings
The second Annual General Meeting of the Group was held in
the Museum at Stratford, and consisted of the showing of two
films on Antarctica. The first dealt with the problems and diffi-
culties encountered in setting up bases as a prelude to the
crossing of this. The second film shown recorded the complete
crossing. At the conclusion of the programme, the Group's Chair-
man, Mr. J. M. Branson, thanked Mr. Marshall, the Museum
Curator, for acting as projectionist.
This meting was attended by 20 Members and friends.
The Meeting to the Wicken Bonhunt area, held on 27th May,
was supported by 14 Members and Associates.
The party met at Newport Station and proceeded to a Chalk
Pit close by, where the leader, Mr. Branson, gave an account of the
Geology of the area, during which the party had to find shelter
from a sudden downpour of rain. After extracting itself from the
chalky mud the party proceeded by cars to Wicken Bonhunt.
Several more pits were visited in the vicinity and some fossils
were found. It struck several members as rather amusing that
whilst travelling from pit to pit the sun came out, but when we
stopped we had to dive for shelter from the rain. These conditions
persisted until the last stop where the sun did come out.
Seven Members met at Cambridge Station on 22nd September
for the visit to the famous Chalk Pit at Barrington, which is
described in the Memoir published by the Geological Survey. At
this pit, which is one of the largest in the area, Members were able
to see and collect the phosphatic nodules from the Gault Clay
which underlies the Chalk. Numerous fossils were collected from
the chalk including several Ammonites, unfortunately none of the
really big ones, which can be found there, were found on this
occasion, but no doubt they will be found again another time.
The party was able to collect specimens of marcasite, and other
types of iron pyrites.
The Group would like to thank and acknowledge the co-
operation of the owners of this Pit for granting permission for
this visit.
On 8th November, at the Passmore Edwards Museum, Mr. J.
Reekie gave an illustrated lecture entitled, "A Beginners Introduc-
tion to Minerals". He outlined briefly the construction of various
types of minerals, and then gave a description of some of the
commonest, and their identification in the field.