Notes and Comments. 381 
justification for the hypothesis. It is therefore with increased 
confidence that I reiterate my former conclusions.’ Mr. 
Lamplugh concludes, ‘I can see no reason for supposing that 
our islands have been more than once enwrapped by ice-sheets, 
however the case may stand in other countries.’ 
AGE OF SUFFOLK VALLEYS. 
At a recent meeting of the London Geological Society, Mr. 
P. G. H. Boswell read a paper on the Age of the Suffolk Valleys ; 
with Notes on the Buried Channels of Drift. The main water- 
shed of Suffolk follows generally the Chalk Escarpment, but 
keeps rather to the east of it, running in a north-easterly 
direction from Haverhill in the extreme south-west of the county. 
Suffolk forms a plateau, 100 to 400 feet O.D., dissected by a 
valley-system which is palmate in form, the chief rivers, taken 
from north to south, being the Waveney, the Alde, the Deben, 
the Gipping (with its estuary, the Orwell), the Brett, and the 
Stour. The Little Ouse and the Lark flow north-westwards 
into the Wash basin. The strata, cut through by the valleys, 
and the mantle of Glacial deposits which more or less covers 
the whole county, were described briefly. Reasons were given 
for thinking that the Contorted Drift does not extend far south 
of the Waveney. The valleys, although they may have been 
etched earlier, are on direct evidence post-Pliocene in age ; 
but, by analogy with the Waveney and the Norfolk rivers, 
they may be younger than the Contorted Drift. The Upper 
Boulder Clay covers much of the plateau, and wraps down into 
the valleys in a very characteristic manner. The Glacial 
Sands, etc., below it also appear at times to lie on the valley- 
slopes. 
THE BURIED RIVER CHANNELS OF EAST ANGLIA. 
Intense glacial disturbances are found to be situated 
always on ‘ bluffs’ or ‘spurs’ of the plateau projecting into 
the wide open valleys, which were thus in existence before the 
advent of the valley-glaciers to the action of which the dis- 
turbances have been attributed. In each of the main valleys 
occur one or more buried channels of Drift; borings made 
recently allow these to be described in detail, and the deposits 
filling them to be discussed. The evidence indicates that the 
pre-Glacial or early Glacial contours of Suffolk were in the main 
much as they are now. The form of rivers and valleys suggests 
that some amount of capture may have taken place before the 
deposition of the Upper Boulder Clay ; and that the present 
river-system is recovering from a state of arrested development, 
due to the ‘ overloading ’ of the valleys with Drift deposits and 
torrential debris during the last glaciation of the area, and to 
the subsidence (some 60 to 80 feet). which followed it. 
1913 Nov. I. 
