Mr. R. C. Taylor on the Geology of East Not folk. 431 



upon its borders, or of any other circumstances positively im- 

 plying such an event. From the remotest period to which we 

 can refer, it has been a branch of the main aestuary of the 

 Garienis, and by this channel the drainage of the district is 

 effected. The soil is composed chiefly of peat, rather than of 

 ooze; the first characterizing the upper parts of a valley, the 

 latter its mouth. Whether by the gradual external wearing 

 away of this coast, the sea approached so near this flat as 

 occasionally to ovei-flow the intervening bank of sand; or 

 whether that bank results from the abrasion of the cliffs to the 

 north, and blocks up an ancient inlet, — there are scarcely suf- 

 ficient data to determine. The existence, therefore, of those 

 northern channels, although not improbable, must remain 

 conjectural. 



There is a mistaken quotation at p. 66, stating that, A. D. 

 1549, an armed pinnace was sent up the Waveney, as for as 

 Weybread. As the place is called Waybridge in the original 

 authority, this evidently refers to Waybridge, near Acle ; that 

 being the most important pass between Yarmouth and Nor- 

 wich, near which place the rebel army was encamped. Wey- 

 bread in Suffolk was far removed from the theatre of opera- 

 tions, independently of the physical improbability of any ves- 

 sel ascending this stream, at least 40 feet above the level of 

 the Yarmouth river, and of passing half-a-dozen water-mills, 

 which interpose in its course. It would not have been neces- 

 sary to notice this error, but for the circumstance of its being 

 classed with proofs of the aldtude of the water, as late as the 

 sixteenth century. 



No further comments are suggested by the historical evi- 

 dence adduced to corroboiate the physical circumstances that 

 have previously been investigated, to sustain the theory of an 

 extraordinary reduction in the level of the waters of our aistu- 

 aries, and by inference, in that of the surrounding seas. 



The result of the foregoing inquiry is opposed to that hy- 

 pothesis. This inquiry suggests views of cause and effect ade- 

 quate to the admitted extent of the change, which are briefly 

 these : — 



That as long as the ocean-currents set unrestricted into 

 these aestuaries, it was in sufficient quantity to expand over 

 and fill them ; the elevation being limited by the height of 

 the tides at the time, and the depth by the greater or less ac- 

 cumulation of oozy sediment. 



That there was from the remotest period, through the local 

 causes which have been detailed, a progressive decrease in 

 the volume of this water, and by consequence a reduction, in 

 an e(jual latio, of the power to nuiintain an open mouth. 



That 



