54 
parishes. It has been for years used for lime and a kiln is on 
the premises. Mr Prestwich as well as myself noticed a layer 
of sand beneath it. 
(Obs. They evidently looked for proof that the mass was 
not in situ, showing how nearly it simulated a natural bed of 
chalk.) 
“Tn several places north of Cromer from that place to Sher- 
ringham are large masses of bouldered chalk proved to be so by 
the underlying beds. 
“On the south side also at Barton and Happisburgh there 
were some but they have all been washed away. In North 
Walsham, Worstead, and Witton large bouldered masses have 
from time to time been worked either for making lime or for 
top-dressing. A tooth of Alephas prim. was obtained by me at 
Witton in connection with one. 
“The large masses at Trimmingham figured in Lyell’s ele- 
ments are part of the fundamental chalk, remnants of an upper 
bed from which the gravel of East Norfolk is derived.” 
These instances show that the mere size of the mass of 
cretaceous strata at Ely is no argument against its having been 
carried thither by ice, and the fact of its consisting of portions 
of two distinct beds is a mere accident. 
There is nothing singular in so large a block of chalk be- 
coming detached from its parent bed. For some miles along 
the coast west of Lyme Regis landslips on a large scale have 
occurred where masses of chalk and green sand fully equalling 
in bulk the mass at Ely have fallen from the cliff. The last of 
these falls occurred not many years ago. The lower portion of 
the disengaged strata consisted of a sandy loam, the upper of 
chalk. 
If we could conceive such circumstances under a glacial 
climate that this mass could have been floated away, as for in- 
stance by snow blowing over the top of the cliff and being 
frozen on to its face, we should have all the conditions necessary 
for the deposition of an immense boulder like that at Ely; 
