iv Journal of Proceedings.
The bed has from 12 to 17 ft. of gravel lying over it, and was undoubtedly
deposited in the estuary of a river ; over this has accumulated the London
Clay, but the Bitot Lea, flowing on through countless years, has worn
away the London Clay, firstly exposing these beds known as the ' Wool-
wich series,' and then piled on them the accumulation of river gravel that
lies there. Here, then, we have beds, lying not far from the surface, that
originally lay beneath the London Clay, and for some distance along the
Lea Valley it is well known that the London Clay is very thin, or is gone
altogether.
"Mr. E. T. Newton, of H.M. Geological Survey, kindly named the
fossils and identified the stratum for me.
" Objects placed in the museum of the Club to illustrate the above
note :—
" 1. Semi-indurated mass of mud containing Cyrena*.
2. Specimens of Cyrena cordata.
3. Washings from the mud.
4. Micro slides (2) containing smaller fossils, simply mounted as opaque
objects for preservation."
Mr. N. F. Robarts remarked that it was satisfactory to learn that the
strata referred to by the author had been authoritatively identified, since,
so far as he was aware, there was no known exposure of the Woolwich
and Beading beds in that part of Essex. He referred also to the author
having spoken of the Woolwich beds as fresh-water deposits, whereas he
believed they were marine and estuarine. He congratulated Mr. Wire on
having made an addition to the knowledge of these beds by discovering
the remains of a shell hitherto unknown to palaeontologists as coining
from these strata. It was an example of the really useful work which the
members of the Club might do.
Mr. Wire replied that Mr. Newton could not at first believe that the
shells actually came from a stratum at Leyton, but on sending him speci-
mens of the mud itself, he (Mr. Newton) had determined it to be of the
Woolwich series.
Prof. Boulger had very little doubt from what he had seen of the speci-
mens that the stratum described by the author was a portion of the
Woolwich series, but he would like Mr. Wire to ascertain the horizon, as
it was very important to know in what part of the Woolwich series it was
situated.
The President said he might remind their geological members that in
the Ordnance Survey maps a patch of the Woolwich and Reading beds
is laid down at Stratford and West Ham, and another between Wennington
and Stifford.
Mr. English exhibited a young female specimen of the Scaup Duck
(Fuligula marila, Linn.) shot on October 15th, 1881, by Mr. W. Ainger,
as it was flying up from a pond about half a mile from Epping, in the
parish of Theydon Garnon, being the first recorded appearance of the bird
in the Forest district. The day previous had been very boisterous and
stormy, and no doubt the duck had been driven inland by the gale. The