CROMER FOREST BED SERIES. 4/1 



To tlie indefatigable researches of Mr. John Gunn (whose collection is placed 

 in the Norwich Museum), and to collections made by the Rev. James Layton, the 

 Rev. S. W. King (in the Museum at Jerniyn Street), Mr. Randall Johnson, Mr. James 

 Backhouse, and others, we chiefly owe our knowledge of the larger Mammalia ; 

 while to the detailed observations of Mr. Clement Reid,^ on the coast section 

 between Weybourn and Eccles, and to those of Mr. J. H. Blake, ^ southwards 

 to Kessingland, we most largely owe our present knowledge of the strata. 

 Previous labourers, like R. C. Taylor,^ the Rev. C. Green,* Lyell,^ Prof. 

 Prestwich ^ and others, have all furnished many important facts; while Mr. Reid 

 and Mr. A. C. Savin have collected with great care the smaller fossils in which 

 these strata are remarkably rich. The vertebrate remains have been described by 

 Mr. E, T. Newton, Prof. W. Boyd Dawkins, and Dr. A. Leith Adams.' 



The following divisions of the Cromer Forest-bed Series on the 

 Norfolk coast have been determined by Mr. Clement Reid : — 



Arctic Freshwater Bed (Glacial). 



Leda-myalis Bed. 



Upper Freshwater Bed. \ 



Forest-bed (Estuarine). > Forest-bed Series, 



Lower Freshwater Bed. ; 



Weybourn Crag. (See p. 469.) 



The estuarine deposits of the Forest-bed were accumulated 

 when the physical conditions allowed an extension of what is now 

 the Rhine over the area of the German Ocean, and parts of east 

 Norfolk.^ 



Ltnvcr Freshivater Bed. — This bed consists of green carbonaceous 

 silt and loam with lignite, about 2 feet thick ; it has been observed 

 resting on the Weybourn Crag (Bure Valley Beds) near Triming- 

 ham ; it is seldom preserved, though its Flora is known from 

 derivative masses of peat and clay-ironstone found in the Estuarine 

 Beds. It contains Chara, Trapa natans, Menyanthes trifoliata, etc. 



Forest-bed [Estuarine). — This division consists of sand and gravel, 

 sometimes cemented into an Iron-pan (Elephant-bed of Mr. Gunn), 

 and lenticular beds of laminated clay with seams of gravel and 

 sand (Laminated Beds of Mr. Gunn) ; ® the beds are frequently 

 false-bedded. The gravel is composed of flints, worn and unworn, 

 together with pebbles of quartz, quartzite, etc., clay-ironstone, and 

 rolled lumps of clay. It attains in places a thickness of 15 feet, 

 but is usually much less. 



Considerable discussion has taken place on the subject of the 

 stumps of trees embedded in the Forest Bed. Attention was first 



> Geol. Cromer (Geol. Survey), p. 10 ; and Horizontal Section, Sheet 127. 



2 Horizontal Section, Sheet 128 (Geol. Survey), with Explanation, 1884. 



3 Phil. Mag. Ix. 132, Ixiii. 81. 



* History, etc., of Bacton, 1842. 



* Phil. Mag. (3), xvi. 345. 



" Q. J. xxvii. 452. See also S. V. Wood, jun., and F. W. Harmer, Introd. to 

 Supp. Crag Mollusca, 1872 ; O. Fisher, G. Mag. 1868, p. 544. 



' Newton, Vertebrata of the Forest Bed Series (Geol. Surv.), 1882 ; Dawkins, 

 Q. J. xxviii. 405 ; Adams, Fossil Elephants, Palceontogr. Soc. 



® J. Gunn, G. Mag. 1867, p. 158 ; C. Reid, Geol. Cromer, p. 57. 



3 Geol. Norfolk (White's History, etc.), 1883. 



