79 



of his will best explain his view of the matter. Speaking- 

 of the soils below the surface or vegetable earth, he says, 

 " I have named this deposit provisionally, the warp of the 

 drift,"* " a name which is however not altogether appro- 

 priate, because although in low situations and on level 

 surfaces it resembles the warp or sediment left by the 

 tidal waters of muddy estuaries and is scarcely distin- 

 guished from modern alluvial deposits, yet in other 

 situations far above the reach of existing streams, stones of 

 considerable size are contained in it, and in the vicinity of 

 mountain chains the large blocks or boulders which 

 either strew the surface or are enveloped in this deposit 

 appear to have been dispersed at the period of its forma- 

 tion. Its history is yet to be discovered. For some time 

 after it had attracted my attention, I regarded it as the 

 deposit left by the waters under which the drift was formed, 

 as they gradually retired during the upheaval and dessica- 

 tion of the land ; but in the course of my observations in 

 Norfolk, I have met with indications of the detiuded surface 

 of the drift having become dry land before this warp was 

 spread over it." Mr. Trimmer published several papers 

 on the subject and one especially on the district I am 

 considering.! 



Mr. Osmund Fisher next took the matter up. He 

 retains the word " warp " which he also believes to be 

 " a deposit from waters returning to a state of tranquility." 

 But he separates the finer from the stony warp or 

 deposit of Trimmer, by giving the latter a distinctive 

 name. He says " It is well known that the surface of the 

 subjacent stratum (to the Warp), wherever it is of a soft 

 nature, such as sand, clay, gravel or chalk is worn into 

 furrows and hollows, sometimes into pits and pipes, 



as far as my observations extend, I find that 



cylindrical pits and pipes are generally confined to soluble 



* He also called it "The Erratic Warp." 



t J. Trimmer, Journal Agric. Soc. VII, , 465, see also J. Trimmer' 

 Q. J. G. S. VII. and others. 



