Mr. H. H. Corbett, M.R.C.S., then read a paper on “Warmsworth Crags” illustrated by lantern slides, prepared by Mr. Bellamy and exhibited by Mr. Stiles.

The essay began with a short description of the geological and physical features of the Don Valley as a whole, from the grit stone moors above Sheffield and Penistone, through the colliery district to Conisborough, thence cutting through the Permian rocks to Doncaster, and on across the level lands of the Trias and Glacial and Alluvial drifts to join the Ouse.
The southern character of the climate and botany of the valley were noticed.

More detailed description was then given of that part of the valley that traverse the Permian rocks. The plants found upon the limestone were shown to be generally typically Xerophilous in character. Several of the more interesting species were described, and the mode of cross-fertilisation in orchids was mentioned.

The lithological characters of the three chief divisions of the Permian rocks – the lower limestone, the middle marls, and the upper limestone – were then noted, and attention was drawn to the sections exposed in the quarries at Warmsworth, the Warmsworth cutting on the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway, and in the quarries of Hexthorpe Flats.
The probable original deposition of the rocks was described, and the scarcity of fossils noted.

Attention was then called to the fact that the southern side of the Don Valley is very narrow, and that all the adjacent country around Warmsworth, Balby, etc., drains, not into the Don, but into the Trent.

Note was then made of the change in the character of the vale, and of its flora, where the lower limestone was left and the marls crop out. The dry-loving plants of the limestone give place to other species requiring a deeper and wetter soil.

The power of water as a denuding agent was entered into, and its action, chemical and mechanical, in wearing away the surface of the land, was described.

A few words on the zoology of the district and the Philosophical aspect of natural history studies brought the essay to a close.