in reply to Mr. R. C. Taylor. 275 



ever exhibited a natural cliff, or precipitous bank, capped with 

 sand and gravel. 



Secondly, that beds of recent shells, similar to those which 

 lie on the sides of the hills, are constantly discovered below 

 the alluvial mud in the bottom of the valley; and 



Thirdly, that these shells do not universally cover the chalk, 

 and in fact, that no continuous layer of them exists out of 

 the basin of this valley, to prove that they have any connec- 

 tion with the Crag of Harwich, Woodbridge, Lowestoff, and 

 Cromer. 



According to Mr. Taylor, "experienced well-sinkers do 

 affirm, that on forming deep wells in various places round 

 Norwich, at a distance from the river, they have occasionally 

 encountered a stratum of shells overl^'ing the chalk ;" and he 

 refers to one instance of this on Musholt heath, in conse- 

 quence of this statement, I have again examined all the chalk- 

 pits in this neighbourhood : and over an area of several miles 

 in extent, where this universal sub-stratum has been laid open 

 in a great variety of situations, I have not been able to meet 

 with a single shell in the sand by which it is covered. I have 

 investigated with particular care those at the foot of Mount 

 Surrey and under St. Michael's hill, which are in the imme- 

 diate vicinity of the well alluded to by Mr. Taylor, and could 

 not perceive in them the least trace of what is called the Crag 

 stratum or of any shelly deposit whatever. 



It is not my wish to express the slightest doubt of any facts, 

 which Mr. Taylor describes from personal observation ; I only 

 dispute his inference from them. There may be — I have in- 

 deed admitted that there are — in this district beds of fossils of 

 marine origin, belonging to the superficial coat of sand and 

 gravel ; but, wherever they occur, they can only be regarded 

 as local and casual vestiges of that ancient ocean, which once 

 flowed over the highest ground in these parts ; for I must in- 

 sist, that the total absence of any such remains in all the 

 chalk-pits, that are not within the circuit of the valley, proves 

 most decidedly, that the supposed stratum is altogether an 

 unestablished deduction from misconceived and unsound pre- 

 mises. Geologists have applied too hastily to the diversified 

 and partial features of this upper formation, the principles by 

 which they have traced the continuity of the lower rocks. The 

 outcrop of solid masses at distant points may be sufficient to 

 indicate the inclination of their beds and the direction in which 

 they extend ; and it is the habit of drawing these conclusions 

 from such appearances, which has led to the prevalence of the 

 false idea, that, because there are beds of shells in the cliff' at 

 2 N 2 Harwich, 



