Mr. R. Taylor on Cromer Cliffs. 83 



of the skull of the stag or elk, a material difference in 

 their size and proportions is observable. 

 One or two small portions of the leg-bones of the elk or 



To return to the more immediate subject of this communi- 

 cation. Near the base of the cliff, represented in the Plate, 

 indurated beds of crag sand, with abundance of its peculiar 

 fossil shells, here consisting chiefly of small Mactra arcuata, 

 Cardia, Mya lata, Turbo littoreus, and fragments of Balani, 

 are exposed at low water upon the beach. 



It is remarkable that at this spot the crag suddenly enlarges, 

 from a small bed a foot and half in thickness, to a series of 

 beds occupying almost the entire cliff more than a hundred 

 and twenty feet high, and about two hundred yards wide; 

 filling up a sort of gap in the accumulated deposits of the di- 

 luvial clay formation. 



There is a further peculiarity: whilst the thin stratified 

 crag, which appears at low water at the base of the cliff, con- 

 tains chiefly perfect or unbroken shells, the whole of these ex- 

 tended superior beds contain comminuted fragments only; a 

 fact which, in conjunction with other circumstances, leads at 

 once to the conclusion that a great disruption of the regular 

 strata, through the powerful agency of currents of water, has 

 taken place since the deposition and consolidation of the chalk. 

 Numerous instances corroborative of such an opinion may be 

 observed within the space of a few miles ; some of these may 

 perhaps be particularized in a future article. 



The crag shells are here dispersed, in fragments, through- 

 out a series of horizontal beds, alternating with gravel and 

 whitish sand, and occasionally with thin seams of loose peat. 



The dry and loose nature of these, like all the other crag 

 sands wherever noticed, subjects them to the continual opera- 

 tion of slipping down the cliff and forming heaps at its base. 



The position of the formations bounding this unusual ac- 

 cumulation of crag, is best understood by a reference to the 

 plate. 



Here some singular curvatures, inversions and contortions 

 of the strata present themselves ; but are with difficulty repre- 

 sented on a scale so limited. Detached masses, lumps and 

 veins of chalk; contortions and tortuous veins of blue clay, 

 gravel and sand, arrange themselves in a variety of forms ; 

 passing through the thick formations of consolidated mud of 

 which the cliffs are chiefly composed along nearly 2/> miles 

 of the Norfolk coast. This mud is divided into two beds, 

 chiefly distinguished by the difference in their colour and 

 density. 



L 2 At 



