THE ANNALS 



AND 



MAGAZINE OF NATURAL HISTORY. 



[THIRD SERIES.] 

 No. 40. APRIL 1861. 



XXVI . — Notice of Opinions on the Stratigraphical Position of the 

 Red Limestone of Hunstanton *. By Harry Seeley. 



It has long been known that there exists on our Eastern coast a 

 red bed in the Upper Secondary rocks, which has received the 

 name of Red Chalk. Its remarkable features early attracted 

 attention, and notices of it by various authors have appeared at 

 intervals up to the present time. None of them are exhaustive ; 

 and the fuller ones only describe sections, enumerate fossils, and 

 give a name to the rock. The relative position of the bed, not 

 being determinable by superposition, has been a matter for spe- 

 culation, and this too often accepted as authority. It extends 

 from Speeton to Hunstanton, and being at the former place 

 situated between the Speeton Clay and Chalk, it is limited to 

 being a part of the Upper Cretaceous series, to every member 

 of which it has been referred : the Chalk, Upper Greensand, 

 Gault, and combinations of these deposits, are all synonyms of 

 the Hunstanton Limestone. The chief authors who have ex- 

 pressed opinions on its age are — William Smith, Messrs. Young 

 and Bird, Prof. Sedgwick, Prof. Phillips, Dr. Fitton, Sir R. I. 

 Murchison, Samuel Woodward, C. B. Rose, Dr. Mantell, Prof. 

 Ansted, David Page, and the Rev. Thomas Wiltshire, These 

 writers differing so greatly among themselves, it has here been 

 thought desirable, before I'ccording the result of my own obser- 

 vations, briefly to review the evidence on which their several 

 opinions may rest. These opinions may be chiefly divided into 

 those which refer the stratum to the Chalk and those which re- 

 gard it as Gault. The former series is the older; and the name 

 clearly indicates that the Red Chalk was considered as much a 



* A portion of this paper was read before the Cambridge Philosophical 

 Society, Dec. 10, 1860. 



Ann.S^ Mag. N. Hist. Ser.3. Vol. yil 16 



