and delicate fern fossils were found, and there were
many large pieces of stems of the giant horsetails,
Calamites, Sigilaria and Lepidodendron.
By afternoon the sun had come out, and we went
to the Cheddar Gorge. It had been arranged that we
should park near the lower end and walk up, but
there was no parking space. I was fortunate in
squeezing my Mini in near the top, and I and my
passengers made a short climb to a vantage point
where the whole gorge was displayed. But the others
had to keep going on, and we reassembled at the next 
point, Ebbor Gorge. Here we walked a little way along
the Nature Trail, through a valley full of wildlife
interest. Some of the party went on to Wookey Hole
before returning to the hotel. By now the party was
much smaller, some having left for home during the
day; the rest stayed on until the Tuesday.
Looking back on the weekend, it was, like its
predecessors, very successful and totally enjoyable.
Again this was due to the very efficient organisation.
Firstly we have to thank Ron Coates for making all
the accommodation arrangements, as he always does.
Then there were our party leaders, who excelled them-
selves in planning the tours and providing the inform-
ation for our instruction. There was an excellent
handout on the geology, giving us, in concise form
all the necessary details we should be seeing. For
this, Ron Allen was responsible. And we had with us
an indefatigable leader in Andrew Fraser, Senior
Lecturer at the Epping Forest Conservation Centre.
Andrew not only went over the ground beforehand, with
Ron, but made out the essential directions for getting
from place to place. It is thanks to the lucidity
of these directions that we lost no-one on this trip
at all! And he was a mine of information, not only
on the geology but on all the other ologies. It was
also through his generosity that the handouts were
run off for us at the Conservation Centre.
During the weekend, notes were made of the bird
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