of the Eastern Coast of England; Sfc. 329 



and, of course, the latter never penetrate into the older for- 

 mation. Consequently, the extent of these beds, internally, 

 would be governed by the distance at which the plane of the 

 one is intersected by* the slope of the other. The principal 

 excavation is that at Whitlingham, which I understand has 

 been worked from time immemorial, and the face of the chalk 

 hill has been removed at least 100 yards. Yet I have col- 

 lected, and now possess, from this perpendicular face in the 

 beds overlying the chalk, numerous specimens of testacea. In 

 some parts of this excavation, intermediate between the chalk 

 and sand, was a bed, about a foot thick, of coarse angular 

 flints, much resembluig those which interpose almost uninter- 

 ruptedly between the plastic clay and the chalk, and contain- 

 ing shells. The deposits above the chalk at this place have 

 also produced remains of the elephant, mastodon, deer, whale, 

 and small fish*. 



Mr. 11. ascribes the presence of extinct species of shells to 

 their accidental admission ; and with equal facility the ani- 

 mal remains, of which I enumerated four or five genera from 

 a variety of localities (although I am somewhat humorously 

 made to announce a solitary, but " prodigious " specimen,) 

 are likewise fortuitously introduced from some " earlier" stra- 

 tum. 



From the observations I have been enabled to make, both 

 in the Norwich beds and in distant parts of the formation, 

 the animal remains are commonly blended with the mass, or in 

 the detritus immediately overlying ; by which circumstance we 

 may conjecture that they were partly of contemporaneous and 

 partly of subsequent origin, with the testacea. 



The area occupied by the crag extends, with few interrup- 

 tions, from the borders of Essex, along the eastern side of 

 Suffolk, over an average width of about seven miles, contract- 

 ing toward the north, and partially concealed there by diluvial 

 clay. In this southern or Suffolk portion the testaceous ex- 

 uviae are astonishingly abundant, and are applied as a valuable 

 manure. Further northward we distinctly resume the traces 

 of this deposit: its beds then become thinner; its produc- 

 tions less abundant and more covered with debris ; until, at 

 the distance of 100 miles from its commencement, it wholly 

 ceases, and the chalk attains a superior elevation. Its south- 



• I have the authority of an excellent comparative anatomist for stating, 

 that to my list of the animal remains discovered in the diluvial clay of the 

 Wavuney Viilluy, may he added the crocodile, the plesiosaurus, ichthyo- 

 ssuirus, s(|ualus, and l)alistes. 



New Scries. Vol.2. No. 11. Nov. 1827. 2 U west 



