460 PLIOCENE. 



In the Suffolk Bone-bed are found rounded masses and nodules 

 of sandstone termed Box stones, which sometimes contain fossils, 

 mostly in the form of casts. They are probably of the age of 

 the Black Crag (Diestian) of Antwerp. The name Box stone 

 was given by the workmen because when struck by a hammer they 

 break open and reveal the enclosed fossil. Fossils have been thus 

 found at Foxhall, Waldringfield, Falkenham, and on Felixstow 

 beach. Many were obtained by the Rev. H. Canham. They in- 

 clude casts of Isocardia, Cardita, Pectimculus, Conns, Cassidaria, 

 Pyrula, Tnrn'hila, Valuta, etc. ; also teeth of Masfodon, etc. 



Lenham Beds. — In certain localities on the Chalk in Kent and 

 Surrey there have been found traces of sand and clay and iron- 

 sandstone with casts of Mollusca, mostly bivalves ; these deposits 

 sometimes fill pipes in the Chalk, and have been met with at 

 Headley east of Guildford, Chipsted south of Croydon, Paddles- 

 worth north-west of Folkestone, Lenham near Maidstone, etc. 

 The examination of the beds in 1857 by Prof. Prestwich,' and a 

 study by Mr. Wood of the fossils which had been found in the 

 iron sandstone at Lenham, led to the beds being doubtfully referred 

 to the Crag; but both Mr. Bristow- and Mr. Whitaker^ have 

 inclined to refer the materials filling most of the pipes to the 

 Eocene period, regarding them as representatives of Woolwich or 

 Oldhaven Beds, although it is quite possible that the deposits are 

 not all of the same age, for fossils have only been met with at 

 Lenham and Paddlesworth. In 1886 Mr. Clement Reid obtained 

 a number of blocks of ironstone from Lenham, and took impressions 

 of the moulds of fossils which occurred in the rock. The species 

 determined include Pyrula reticulata, Ringiciila vejitricosa, Tnrritdla 

 incrassata, Pectunculns glycuneris, Diplodonta rotundata, Tcrebratula 

 grandis, etc.* As remarked by Mr. Reid, the species are southern 

 forms, and indicate that the deposit is of the age of the Coralline 

 Crag, and equivalent, as Prof. Prestwich considered, to the lower 

 part of this Crag, known as Diestian (named after Diest in 

 Belgium). 



St. Erth Beds. — Pliocene deposits were in 1883 discovered at 

 St. Erth, near the Land's End, by Mr. Thomas Cornish and Mr. 

 F. W. Harmer ^ The evidence was furnished by the occurrence of 

 Mollusca in a bed of blue clay, resting on sand, and overlaid by 

 clayey loam. The species include Cypnva avcllana, Nassa serrata 

 {reticosa), N. sol/da, Mehwipus {Conovulus) pyramidaUs, Cohanbella 

 sulcata, Tnrritella incrassata, Natica multiputictata {milhpunctata), 

 Nucula nucleus, Peetnnculus glyei?neris, Lucina borealis, etc. Polyzoa, 

 Ostracoda, and Foraminifera likewise occur. 



Our knowledge of the deposit is chiefly due to the labours of 

 ]Mr. Percy F. Kendall and Mr. R. G. Bell,"^ who have largely 



1 Q. J. xiv. 322. 2 Q. J. xxii. 553. 



s Q. J. xxii. 430 ; Mem. Geol. Survey, iv. 336, 601. See also A. von. Koenen 

 (who maintained the Crag age of the deposits), G. Mag. 1867, p. 502. 



^ Nature, Aug. 12, 1886, p. 342. * S. V. Wood, jun., Q. J. xli. 65. 



6 Q. J. xlii. 201. 



