TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS, 67 
a mastodon-bearing bed of angular flints ; and its position was well defined, as it 
was rearly uniformly on the horizon of high-water level; and consequently, 
wherever the chalk met that horizon, the Forest-bed existed upon it, as at Cromer 
and Runton. Though not easy to accertain its south-eastern boundary, as the 
chalk did not extend there, yet it might be presumed to be a mastodon-bearing 
bed at Easton Bavent, upon which the Forest-bed abutted, as it did upon the chalk, 
without overlying it. It was composed of a light blue clay remarkable for false 
stratifications and an indurated gravel, answer ng to the loess and valley-gravel, 
which marked another point of agreement with the river-valley formations. These 
component parts, especially the gravel, abound with the remains of several 
species of Hlephas and Cervus, which were found not rolled but sharply broken, 
together with the bones of cetaceans of enormous size, and much drifted wood, 
facts which indicated that the Forest-bed was a fluviatile or estuarine deposit open 
to the sea, and that the Elephantine and Cervine remains had been carried into it 
by some powerful current. He regarded the German Ocean as the vast trough or 
river-bed, into which many tributary rivers poured their waters on the right and 
left banks, but closed by chalk hills to the south, so as to afford a communication 
between this country and the Continent, and a way for the mastodon, elephant, 
and other mammals to traverse. The soil of the Fovest-bed, after being thus 
deposited, was raised to the surface, the forest grew upon it, a great change in 
fauna took place, different species of elephants and deer were introduced, and 
then, after remaining stationary for a long peziod, a gradual subsidence commenced 
and the laminated series began to be formed. After showing, from the researches 
of palzeontologists, that with these laminated beds the temperature progressively 
lowered, the author enumerated these beds; namely, the freshwater beds, as at 
Mundesley and Runton; then the brackish beds, as the Pinna-bed at Mundesley ; 
next, marine, and, among them, the Upper Norwich Crag, and the Chillesford 
sand and clays, as the land continued to subside, were deposited successively in 
deeper and deeper water, and with shells of an increasingly arctic character. In 
thus placing the Chillesford sand and clays above the Fovest-bed, he had deviated 
from the opinion entertained by Mr. Prestwich and other geologists, and formerly 
by himself; but a close examination of the Chillesford clay at Chillesford had led 
him to affirm the identity of the clay deposited at other places which he men- 
tioned. Reference was then made by the author to the finding by Dr. Woodward 
in the laminated series at Seratly, of a specimen of the Voluta Lambertu. The 
identity of these beds was further increased by other gentlemen finding the same 
shell in them. 
Passing over Mr. Woodward’s corroboration of the true position of the Forest- 
bed, the author referred to Sir C. Lyell’s ‘ Principles,’ wherein he remarked that 
the refrigeration of the climate, evidenced by shells of an arctic character in the 
Chillestord beds, was such as to render a change of climate and an oscillation of its 
level necessary for the introduction of the Forest-bed, which he was inclined to 
regard as interglacial. With all respect to Sir C. Lyell, the author said it appeared 
to him that if such were the case, there would be shells of an arctic character 
dicoyered prior to the Forest-bed, whereas all the antecedents of the bed, especially 
the mammalian remains, evidenced a continuous progression from the warmer cli- 
mature of the Mastodon-bearing bed to the more temperate climature of the Forest- 
bed. The Mastodon altogether disappeared in it, but the Elephas (Loxrodon) 
meridionalis retained all the rugosity of its disks. The author next spoke of the 
mammaliferous bed of flints, containing remains of the Mastodon arvernensis, as 
having been regarded as part of the mammaliferous Crag, but he considered that it 
ought to be placed in the older Pliocene, while the upper parts of it should be 
assioned to the Pleistocene. No mention had been made by him of the Coralline 
and Red Crags, because he was inclined to regard them as members of an entirely 
distinct river-system. An examination of changes “ of oscillation” of the levels 
micht be carried into the older strata, so as to afford proofs of repeated subsidences 
and reeleyvations of the site of the present German Ocean, which would render the 
above statements quite common-place. 
5* 
