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ON SOME GEOLOGICAL SECTIONS AT 

 WITHAM, ESSEX. 



By J. FRENCH. 



IN making the new railway station at Witham some Glacial 

 beds have been exposed, which possess rather more than 

 ordinary interest, as I shall endeavour to show. 



The first section to which I would direct attention is that 

 made on the west side of the cutting by the cross-over bridge at 

 the station. This section, which I roughly estimate at 18 feet, 

 shows at the basement about 3 feet of Westleton Sand and 

 Gravel, succeeded by about 13 feet of Glacial-gravel, and this is 

 overlaid by about 2 feet of Boulder-clay remainse and surface 

 soil. The quality of the members is very pronounced. The 

 Westleton-sand is unmistakeable. The Middle-glacial Gravel 

 is also a typical specimen and the Boulder-clay remainse, 

 although its calcareous elements have been extracted, is also an 

 unmistakeable element. In a long search for a section showing 

 these three members in juxtaposition I have hitherto been 

 unsuccessful. When the railway was made from Witham to 

 Braintree in 1849, Professor Prestwich saw and figured such an 

 exposure 1 , but all his exposures have long since been covered up. 

 His section compares very well with the one above described. 

 In both the Boulder-clay is indented into the Glacial-gravel, 

 whilst the Glacial-gravel below is very much mixed up with the 

 Westleton-bed. The exact line of demarcation cannot be made 

 out. Beyond a certain place we can safely assign all to the 

 " Middle-glacial," and below another certain place we can assign 

 all to the" Westleton." 



The other exposure is on the east side of the railway cutting 

 opposite to the other. It is interesting as showing a rather con- 

 siderable quantity of Post-glacial Gravel resting on Middle- 

 glacial Gravel, and with no trace of intervening Boulder-clay. 

 There is a very large funnel-shaped depression in the lower 

 member, say, 20 feet wide by 15 feet deep, filled with the Post- 

 glacial Gravel and loose earth. This shades off on either side 

 into a uniform covering of about three feet of the same material 

 which, so far as it is exposed, shows minor kind of " pot-holes" 

 at intervals. This po nts to a denudation of the Boulder-clay, 

 probably of the River-drift period. I find by reference to the 



1 " On the relation of the Westleton-Beds, etc." Quay. Journ. Geol. Soc, February, 1908. 



