54 Fossils of Red Crag and Chalk Pits, Suffolk. [Sess. 



Let us now turn from the fossils of the crag to those of the 

 chalk. The chalk pit we next visited was a very large one, 

 near the village of Braniford, about three miles from Ipswich. 

 It was a very deep cutting, the walls of pure chalk towering 

 \ip like lofty hills above our heads. The men were busy 

 burning the chalk for lime. We were not so fortunate as to 

 chalk fossils, but secured a pretty specimen of Ananchytes ovata, 

 an Echiuoid of the Cretaceous ])eriod, locally termed " Fairy 

 loaves." We found them difficult to dig out of the close, 

 compact mass of chalk, the outside shell being so delicate. At 

 the same place I picked up a completely round ball of flint, 

 and on splitting it in two halves, I came upon a ball of pure 

 white chalk, which, Dr Taylor informed me, when carefully 

 washed, would be found to be full of sponge-spicules. Flint, 

 indeed, is closely connected with sponge-organisms, and there 

 are various theories as to what flint itself really is. 



Thus ended our excursion to the red crag and chalk pits of 

 Suffolk — very pleasant in the carrying out, and no less pleasant 

 in the retrospect. A systematic search would of course bring 

 many more fossils to light, and such a search I hope soon to 

 undertake. What was accomplished on that November day was 

 just enough to whet the appetite for more. In addition to the 

 shells found, and now exhibited, I have brought for your inspec- 

 tion a small quantity of the ferruginous shelly sand of the red 

 crag. This sand has for centuries been used for enriching poor 

 clayey soils, on the surface of which it is spread. I am indebted 

 to two gentlemen, members of the Society, for the preparations 

 shown — viz., to Mr Johnston, for the section of a coprolite which 

 he has made, and which is now exhibited under the microscope ; 

 and to Mr Pearcey, of the Challenger Commission, who has 

 kindly prepared slides of some of the chalk which I brought 

 with me from Suffolk. These slides show a very considerable 

 number of Foraminifera of various forms, some of them being 

 new species. 



The lessons to be learned from the Suffolk crag and chalk 

 pits are extremely interesting, and reveal to us much of the later 

 geological history of this island of ours. Perhaps some of our 

 members have not yet turned their attention to the subject ; and 

 if I have succeeded in bespeaking their interest for it, then 

 something has been gained by these remarks. 



