40 Occurrence of Valuta Lumber ti on the Suffolk Coast, 



principally forwarded to him by local collectors, who were 

 unacquainted with geology ; and it could not, therefore, be 

 expected that they would pay much attention to the position 

 or general characters of different beds. Allusion is, however, 

 made, once or twice, to "native beds of crag;" and Dr. 

 William Smith, in his Strata Identified, speaks of "stony" 

 and " sandy " crag as distinct. 



It is well known that some extremely recent deposits, 

 containing existing species of marine Testacea, occur either 

 above the crag, or in not very distant localities ; and, were it 

 not for the extensive denudation to which our eastern coast 

 has been subjected, I firmly believe that in those tertiary 

 strata, of which now only a remnant is left, we should find a 

 series of fossiliferous beds connecting the oldest members of 

 the tertiary group with those in which all the shells can be 

 identified with existing species. Mr. Bean has announced 

 the discovery of a marine deposit at Burlington*, the fossils 

 of which seem to indicate a geological position between 

 the London clay and crag ; while, at the same time, I 

 have also endeavoured to show that a distinct age should be 

 assigned to those beds of the crag formation in which we meet 

 with existing species of Mammifera; if, therefore, the premises 

 in these two instances are correct, a considerable approxima- 

 tion towards a series of successive deposits, without any wide 

 hiatus, is established. The original extent of these formations 

 cannot possibly be determined ; but elephants' bones have 

 been dredged up 20 miles from the shore, and, within that 

 distance of the coast line, a dozen deposits of different ages 

 may have been swallowed up by the encroachments of the 

 ocean. Under these circumstances, it is highly probable that 

 fossil shells may be taken up at sea, or washed on shore, 

 which have no connexion with any existing deposits. Nor is 

 the evidence of specific agreement of any use as a guide to 

 our conclusions, since so large a proportion of Mollusca are 

 common to beds of different geological ages. 



In Mr. Lyell's Geology, the Voliita Lamberti is regarded 

 as a still existing species, upon the authority of M. Deshayes, 

 who states that, among a large proportion of crag shells 

 which he was enabled to identify with recent Testacea, this 

 species was the only one not inhabiting the German Ocean. 



Being totally unacquainted with any recent analogue of 

 this fossil, I applied to Mr. John Edward Gray and to Mr. 

 George Sowerby for information upon the subject. From 

 both these distinguished conchologists I learned that there 



* Mag. Nat. Hist, (old series), vol. viii. p. 355.; also, British Associa- 

 tion, 5th Report, p. 62. 



