Remarks on the Crag of Norfolk and Suffolk. 465' 



Mr. Woodward says, p. 353, " In the first place, his red 

 crag is decidedly diluvium or disrupted crag." As the anta- 

 gonist to this the following observation occurs in my own 

 remarks: "The red crag affords decisive evidence of having 

 been a gradual deposit, formed by successive accumulations of 

 marine exuviae, which were not brought from a distant part by 

 the operation of a powerful current, but belonged to the na- 

 tural inhabitants of those localities, which, owing to the subse- 

 quent retreat of the ocean, are now rendered accessible." p. 90. 



I was certainly a little startled at seeing it asserted that the 

 shelly strata which I have designated by the term red crag, 

 and which constitute by far the greater part of the crag for- 

 mation, are of diluvial origin. Mr. Lyeli has pointed out the 

 analogy between these deposits and those which are now 

 forming round some parts of the British coast. Professor 

 Phillips regards the crag as an ancient beach of the German 

 Ocean. Messrs. Conybeare and W. Phillips, in describing the 

 crag as a part of the upper marine formation , particularly ad- 

 vert to the fact of certain species of Testacea occurring na- 

 turally grouped together. 



Now, I would not for a moment infer, because Messrs. Lyell, 

 Conybeare, and other geological inquirers generally regarded 

 as fully capable of distinguishing between dilyvial and regu- 

 larly formed deposits, have considered the crag as belonging 

 to the latter class, that Mr. Woodward is not in the possession 

 of certain facts which fully justify him in drawing an opposite 

 conclusion, but I regret that he should have thought it suffi- 

 cient simply to assert that the red crag is of diluvial origin, 

 without making public some of the grounds by which he has 

 arrived at a decision so completely at variance with the facts 

 brought forward by others. If Mr. Woodward had produced 

 something like a reasonable chain of evidence to support his 

 assertion, it would have been more in accordance with the 

 methods usually pursued in determining doubtful points, and 

 would certainly have done far more towards " eliciting the 

 truth" than the plan which he has for the present adopted. 



Mr. Woodward evidently uses the term 'diluvial' in its most 

 sweeping acceptation, as I particularly dwelt upon the fact of 

 the coralline stratum being broken up, and its contents min- 

 gled with the newer deposit. 



Mr. W T ood ward's next objection is of a more serious nature. 



" Secondly, his term * coralline crag' is not appropriate, as 

 it leads us to suppose that it is composed of corallines, when, 

 in fact, there are none in the Ramsholt bed, which is chiefly 

 adverted to." 



In applying the term 'coralline crag' to the Ramsholt de- 

 Third Series. Vol. 7. No. 4-2. Dec. 1835. 3 O 



