56 MICEOSCOPICAL OBJECTS FOUND 



exhibited corresponding results. There were 

 various Foraminifera, especially Miliolse, mixed 

 up with sponge spicula, small corals, broken 

 shells, and rudimentary plates of Echinodermata, 

 along with a small proportion of sand and amor- 

 phous matter. 



Mr. Reckitt has furnished me with some sand 

 obtained from an interesting and somewhat analo- 

 gous accumulation seven feet below the surface, at 

 Boston, in Lincolnshire. It is unquestionably 

 part of an ancient sea-beach. There is no doubt 

 but that a considerable portion of the fen district 

 to the west and south-west of the Wash, was once 

 an estuary, which has undergone considerable 

 changes, even since the time of the Roman 

 Invasion, the old sea-bank having, at that 

 comparatively recent period, been much further 

 inland than at present.* The Boston deposit 

 consists principally of very fine sea sand and car- 

 bonaceous matter ; but mixed up w^ith it are an 

 immense number of Foraminifera, of several 

 species, some of them being identical with those 

 of the Levant. The most numerous of these are 



* As in the case of the Lewes Levels. Lyell's Principles 

 of Geol. Vol. iii., p. 210, second edition. 



