TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION C. 621 



•considerable elevation above the sea-level, passes unconformabl}' over the older Ter- 

 tiary strata, and was, with them, subjected to a great amount of denudation before 

 the deposition of the succeeding Glacial series. On the other hand, the old land, 

 -which seems to have extended westward from the Norfolk coast, is now in great 

 'part below the level of the German Ocean. Further, whereas the succeeding 

 •Glacial beds all show a drift from northward to southward, this is the only case 

 that has come under the author's notice of a marine drift from southward to the 

 ■northward. 



The Westleton Beds, in their more typical aspect, consist of quartzose sands 

 full of flint-pebbles, almost as much worn and as numerous as in the Lower 

 Tertiary sands of Blackheath. With these are mixed — (1) A good many small 

 white and rose-coloured quartz-pebbles ; (2) Pebbles of Lydian stone : (3) Large 

 flattened pebbles of a light-coloured quartzite ; and (4) Rolled and worn fraoinents 

 of Lower Greensand chert. It is the presence of these, and especially of the last, 

 that constitutes so marked a feature of these beds, and together with the absence of 

 pebbles and rock-fragments of northern origin, serves to separate them from the 

 Inter-glacial sands and shingle with which in places they come into juxtaposition. 



The author then proceeds to trace the beds through Essex, and gives a series of 

 railway sections showing these beds, exhibiting usually the appearance of a white 

 gravel, with intercalated ochreous beds, and reposing on a very eroded surface of 

 -the London Clay. Near Clare there is a pit in which they exhibit oblique lamina- 

 tion, and might, apart from the want of fossils, be mistaken for a Crag section. 

 Near Braintree, a remarkable section was exposed in the branch railway to that 

 <town. It showed these beds much faulted, overlain irregularly by a darker bed 

 full of the New Eed Sandstone quartzite pebbles, and the whole covered by 

 indenting Boulder Clay. 



In following the beds further westward they undergo further modification. 

 Certain characters remain, however, persistent, and on these we have to rely. 

 1st, the shingle is composed essentially of chalk-flint pebbles, becoming less worn 

 aswe approach the southern limits of the deposit ; 2ndly, it often becomes much 

 mixed with flint- pebbles and subangular fragments of compact sandstone derived 

 from the underlying Tertiary strata ; 3rdly, the Greensand chert and ragstone 

 [fragments often so increase in numbers as to constitute a large portion of the 

 gravel. They are worn and subangular, and the chert is identical with the chert 

 of the Lower Greensand of Kent and Surrey; 4thly, the pebbles of white and 

 rose-coloured quartz, of Lydian stone, and of whitish quartzite become rarer, and 

 in places are wanting. The Lydian stone and some of the small quartz pebbles 

 may be derived, with the chert, from the Lower Greensand, but this will not 

 account for the great number of quartz pebbles found in the Eastern counties. 

 The quartzite pebbles are as large but lighter-coloured and more ovoid than 

 those of the New Red. They probably have drifted from a continental area 

 on the east, the author having found similar beds in parts of Belgium, othly, 

 the absence of northern drift. 



It is to this age that the author would refer the drift gravel capping some 

 of the higher ground in Epping Forest, and also the Middlesex hills "around 

 Barnet and Southgate, and extending thence in outliers to the range of hills 

 between Hertford and Hatfield, South Mimms and St. Albans, and possibly as 

 far north as_ Tj'ler's Hill, near Chesham. Ranging further westward, it forms 

 a small capping on Horsington Hill, near Harrow, which serves to connect it with 

 Its high level on Bowsey Hill, near Henley-on-Thames. Southward, it caps 

 St. George's Hill, near Weybridge. Approaching its southern boundarv, this 

 drift becomes less worn and passes into a subangular flint-gravel, capping several 

 of the hills south of the Thames. At Cherry Down, near Windsor, it consists in 

 large part of subangular fragments of chert and ragstone. It caps Iluno-ary Hill, 

 near Farnham , another hill west of Cajsar's Camp, near Bagshot; Meadow "Down, 

 near Guildford ; and Pobly Hill, near Dorking, and some others. To this period 

 may possibly be also assigned the gravel on the top of Well Hill (if not older), 

 Jiear Chelsfield, Kent ; and some sand and gravel on the top of the cliffs near 

 Minster, in the Isle of Sheppey. 



