116 



especially in Norfolk and the maritime districts there adjoining, a 

 nearly-complete record of the sequence of events from late Pliocene 

 times downward have been preserved, and we can, in consequence, 

 get more-or-less complete materials relating to the whole Pleisto- 

 cene history of that part of the kingdom. In the hands of my 

 colleagues, Mr. Clement Reid and Mr. E. T. Newton, these 

 materials have been carefully worked up, and have been made to 

 yield a connected account of the whole series of events from the 

 advent of cold condition in Pliocene times onward.* In the 

 North-West of England the case is very different ; for our materials, 

 except those relating to the very latest period of the Age of Ice, 

 are either very imperfect and fragmentary, or are else wanting 

 altogether. 



Preglacial Con-figuration of the Siirface. — Turning first to the 

 preglacial features of the surface, we find that in regard to the 

 minor details of surface sculpture, nothing very certain can be 

 made out. There are however many reasons for believing that 

 these minor features were different in many essential respects from 

 those that meet the eye there now. And in the dales of Yorkshire 

 adjoining the eastern parts of Edenside it is certain that the form 

 of the surface left by prolonged weathering, such as must have 

 preceded the Glacial Period, must have been very different from 

 what we see there now. And what is true of the Yorkshire Dales 

 must be true cceieris paribus, of the parts herein more especially 

 under notice. All the larger features, however, appear to have 

 been shaped out long before the advent of the Glacial Period. 

 Where there are valleys and hills now, there were valleys and hills 

 as far back as the times when the oldest Pleistocene deposits of 

 East Anglia were laid down. 



It seems to be perfectly clear, indeed, that not only all the 

 larger valleys, but also most of the courses of the smaller streams, 

 had already been carved into much their present form by the 

 prolonged action of subaerial denudation, prior to the advent of 

 the Glacial Period proper. There seems also every reason to 



* See the Geological Survey Memoir on the Geology of Cromer. 



