xcviii
Journal of Proceedings.
Saturday, May 10th, 1884. Visit to the Crystal Palace.
This meeting was held in conjunction with the Geologists' Association
for the purpose of inspecting some collections of interest to geologists,
under the leadership of Dr. D. S Price, F.C.S., and Mr. W. Topley, F.G.S.
The party met in the Technological Gallery about two o'clock. This
gallery has been formed under Dr. Price's superintendence, to illustrate
the stages of manufacture of metals, glass, pottery, as well as of other
things less geological. Among the objects of interest in the gallery may
be mentioned :—A small collection of Flint implements, from the Somme
gravels, interesting as being one of the earliest publicly exhibited ;
ores of the metals and metallurgical products ; examples of Sussex
iron from the old Wealden Furnaces ; glass and pottery in various
stages of manufacture; varieties of coal from different countries;
building stones, &c.
The party then walked through the grounds to the Restorations of
Extinct Animals, where Mr. J. W, Hulke, F.R.S., kindly gave an
address, descriptive of some of the animals represented. The restora-
tions were constructed by Mr. B. Waterhouse Hawkins in 1854, and
were described by Sir Richard Owen in a small guide-book (' Geology
and Inhabitants of the Ancient World,' 1854), now out of print.
Close by were seen some artificial geological sections, illustrating the
succession of the Carboniferous rocks :—Coal Measures, Millstone Grit,
and Carboniferous Limestone Faults transverse the bed, which are over-
lain unconformably by New Red Sandstone.*
Saturday, May 17th, 1884. Visit to the New Docks at
Tilbury.
This meeting was held under the guidance of Mr. T. V. Holmes,
F.G.S., and in conjunction with the Geologists' Association, for the
purpose of inspecting the excavations being made for the new East and
West India Docks, close to the west side of the Tilbury railway station ;
permission having been courteously given by the East and West India
Dock Company.
The excavations are in alluvium, consisting of blue clay with peaty
bands, above sand and gravel. At a depth of thirty-two feet from the
surface a remarkable human skeleton was discovered last autumn ; it fur-
nished the subject of a paper by Sir Richard Owen, communicated to
the Royal Society on December 6th, 1883 (and since published in book-
form). Mr. Holmes having given a full account of the sections and their
bearing on the age of the skeleton in our ' Transactions,' under the title
of "Notes on the Geological Position of the Human Skeleton lately
* The Editor is indebted for the above to Mr. Topley's notice of the meeting: in
the Proc. Geol. Assoc., viii., p. 391.