PARTICULARLY OF THE VALLEY OF THE GIPPING. 437 



(1) All above is a dark rough gravel, interspersed with loamy clay and sand, 



similar in all respects to that of the Darmsden pit above. 



(2) Below the layers are whiter and distinctly stratified. 



(2') A layer of fine whitish loam or brick-earth, with a bed of small chalky gravel 

 containing broken belemnites, worn ostrea, echini, &c. 



Below (2') is a perfectly white pure sand to the bottom of the section ; the greatest 

 depth exposed is between 60 and 70 feet. 



The strata are much bent, and many slips can be seen. 



We have now sketched both sides of the Gipping valley from Ipswich to Needham ; this 

 portion has a character of its own different from the remainder, arising from the fact that the 

 chalk does not again make its appearance, nor do the abrupt sand-cliffs extend any further ; 

 there is however no kind of discontinuity in the form of the valley itself. 



Resuming the upward course of the left bank we come to the opening of a large valley 

 running up to Stonham. Following this we find on the right side, immediately under Creeting 

 Chapel, a sand-pit, which is not now worked ; when fresh cut it exhibited a section of about 

 20 feet high, shewing alternate horizontal strata of sand and fine clay, exactly like the (2) and 

 (2) of fig. (9). The flank of the valley against which this mass appears to be placed is, from 

 the evidence of drains and ditches, a pure drift-clay extending down to at least the level of the 

 base of this pit, when it is covered over or separated from the flat boggy meadows by a sort of 

 gravelly or shingly bank : a little further on (at Woolney Hall), still on the right ascending 

 side, this low gravelly portion contains a mass of soft white brick-clay. 



Across the stream, and just at the level of the preceding pit, is a large sand-pit immediately 

 below Hill-farm. The section exhibited by it is perhaps 20 feet high : nearly all this, begin- 

 ning at the top, is occupied by alternate layers of fine brick-clay and white chalky sand ; the 

 latter contains broken belemnites, ostrea, small black spots like powdered carbon or extremely 

 decayed wood, and is full of fragments of white shells* lying flat : it has exactly the ap- 

 pearance of ordinary beach-sand; and I have even found tolerably preserved specimens of 

 recent murex, and one or two pieces of bivalves so coloured as to resemble the red crag fossils. 

 At the base the sand seems to be purer and more continuous. There are also considerable 

 slips in the strata. 



On this side, throughout the whole extent of the valley, traces of sand and gravel are well 

 known by farmers and surveyors to occur along the level of this pit and below it, but above 

 (and the ground rises considerably) the stiff tenacious drift-clay always sets in. 



Recrossing the stream again we find on Deerbolt's farm several pits situated at different 

 levels up to the before-mentioned superior limit ; they are respectively worked for gravel, 

 sand, and brick-earth : the highest exposes alternate layers of fine brick-clay and sand capped 

 by an unstratified mass of earthy rubble ; the workmen represent the base of this to be a stiff 

 chalky clay, like the subsoil of the land above (pure drift-clay) ; the lower pits give thin layers 

 of sand and brick-earth upon a floor of angular flints, so that fig. (10) would seem to be the 

 section at this point. 



