49 



Beyond this the section is much obscured by talus, but the 

 second bed of gravel (c) appeared to descend from above and 

 cut into the loam in a similar way ; and this view of the facts is 

 shown in the annexed representation of the eastern side of the 

 pit. 



Fig. 2. 

 Diagrammatic Sketch of Whittlesford Gravel Pit. 



N.w. 



a = lower gravel. rf = roadway. 



6 = loam. e = supposed fault. 



c= upper gravel. /=the cave. 



There is no evidence of a fault at e, as some have supposed; 

 the loam simply fills a hollow eroded out of the gravels by 

 current action and passes above them undisturbed. On the 

 west side of the pit nothing but loam is exposed ; but in the 

 next field another excavation shows gravel again with inter- 

 bedded contorted loams and sands, the collocation here giving 

 colour to the interpretation above given of the section in the 

 larger pit. Nowhere could any shells or contemporaneous 

 fossils be found. 



The hill to the North appears to be chiefly composed of 



loam, and in a small brickyard just N.W. of the cross-roads the 



following section is shown : 



feet 

 Topsoil 1 



Laminated yellowish loam 2 



Yellowish clayey loam 4 



Hard buff-coloured loam 8 



Softer bluish-grey loam 2 + 



The lowest loam here seen is somewhat the colour of blue 

 Boulder Clay, but its intimate structure or texture is entirely 

 different, and it passes up into a stiff buff loam breaking with 

 a kind of hackly fracture. The bluish tinge of the deeper 

 portion was no doubt the original colour of the whole mass, the 

 upper part having weathered to its present colour. These 

 loams are doubtless to a great extent sifted and re-arranged 



4 



