A HISTORY OF NORFOLK 



highly probable that they extend some distance inland beneath the 

 Norwich Crag and Glacial beds, perhaps as far westwards as Happisburgh 

 or Bacton on the north coast, and southwards through Stalham, Acle and 

 Reedham. 



Although no Eocene fossils have been found in situ in the area, 

 elsewhere the equivalent strata furnish evidence of estuarine conditions 

 and of a tropical fauna and flora. 



It is noteworthy, however, that some derived Eocene or Oligocene 

 mollusca have been recorded from the Crag;^ that Eocene pebbles have 

 been observed in the Glacial Drift of Norfolk;" and that the jet and 

 amber dredged off the coast or found in the Cromer Forest Bed and on 

 the beach, have probably been derived from Eocene or Oligocene beds 

 under the North Sea. Moreover it is not unlikely that the clayey bands 

 in the Norwich Crag Series were derived from Eocene strata, which locally 

 bordered the sea during the Pliocene period. 



Be this as it may the record of Eocene strata tells ot a period of 

 quiescent shallow water and estuarine deposits which occupied a 

 considerable portion of what is now East Norfolk, but may not have 

 extended over the entire area of the county. The Chalk towards the 

 west, which was then connected with the Lincolnshire Chalk, must have 

 been upheaved in certain tracts so as to form cliffs which yielded the 

 materials of the Eocene flint pebble-beds. 



Afterwards, and presumably during the Miocene epoch of which 

 we have no actual deposit in this country, the Eocene strata and Chalk 

 were further up-tilted on the west, and denudation of the Chalk, which 

 had been commenced in Eocene times, was continued by subaerial agents. 

 In course of time the Red Chalk of Hunstanton, which originally may 

 have been 2,000 feet below sea-level, was upraised above it in West 

 Norfolk, and brought to light by the denudation of the overlying beds of 

 White Chalk. 



We may infer that in these early times the dissolution ot the Chalk 

 and the destruction of the Tertiary strata led to a superficial accumulation 

 akin to the clay-with-flints of our southern counties. 



A depression in Pliocene times, which affected what is now East 

 Suffolk before any part of Norfolk was submerged, brought in deposits of 

 the earlier Crags, and during later stages much of East Norfolk was gradu- 

 ally lowered beneath the sea-level. At this time probably the North Sea 

 area first began to assume a definite form. 



NORWICH CRAG AND FOREST BED SERIES 



The Pliocene deposits which rest indifferently on the Eocene strata 

 and the Chalk, stretch in mass across the eastern part of Norfolk and form 

 the earliest stages of a succession which links us without serious break 

 with the present. There is little doubt that these deposits are represented 



* S. V. Wood, and Supp. to Monograph of Crag Mollusca (Palasontograph. Soc), p. 40. 

 ' Rev. O. Fisher, Geol. Mag., vol. v. p. 549. 

 12 



