The Chalk Bluffs at Trimingham. 399 



remembers, not more than four high, the beds of flint curving down 

 very gently towards its eastern end. This mass had not been visible 

 in 1898, nor was it in 1905, having probably been washed away 

 in the interval. 



We were again at Cromer in the Spring of 1900, and twice visited 

 the Trimingham section.^ The drift about the western chalk-mass 

 was much obscured by washed down mud, but the curvature in the 

 bands of flint was very distinct at the eastern end and less so at the 

 western, though apparently in the latter case more acute than in the 

 former. At the eastern chalk-mass a small ' cave ' was seen high 

 up on its western side between it and the drift, but the section was 

 on the whole clearer on the opposite side. In this mass the flint 

 bands were practically horizontal. Its top, rather wavy in outline, 

 was covered by a thin irregular bed of coarse gravel, curving over 

 its rounded corner. Then came sand enclosing a thin bed of 

 laminated clay, followed by a rather thicker one of bluish-grey 

 clay, and that by alternating beds of sand and clay, the whole being 

 rather less than three yards in thickness. From the place where 

 the edge of the chalk-mass plunged steeply downwards a crack 

 extended vertically upwards into the drifts. The beds on the land 

 side of this were to a considerable extent masked by ' wash-down,' 

 but, so far as we could see, were not continuous with those on the 

 other which have just been mentioned. Gravel was also seen to 

 rest on a sort of ledge near the bottom of the chalk-mass, followed 

 by a rather sandy band ; this, by a thinner one of brown laminated 

 loam, and it by a slightly thicker bed of sand, covered by a clay 

 " resembling the thicker bed of bluish-grey clay seen at the top." 

 This clay " contained some pebbles and bits of chalk besides flint, 

 but was not quite identical with the usual boulder-clay." ^ There 

 was also a small hollow in the steep shoulder of the chalk-mass 

 filled with " laminated stuff, rather messed." As these beds curved 

 upwards they might be cited to prove a bending simultaneous with 

 that of the chalk. But unfortunately for this the lower set over- 

 lapped one another and ended against the chalk, while the flints 

 in the latter afforded no evidence of curvature, but apparently 

 dipped gently towards the south or south-south-west. The sea-face 

 of the mass was then about 33 yards in length, its sides being also 

 exposed to view. But on this occasion a third mass of chalk, about 

 12 yards long, was disclosed about 33 yards to the east of the last- 

 named, on the top of which was the usual boulder-clay, of which 

 a few feet were exposed. 



1 One of us (T. G. B.) records in his diary that this chalk-mass seemed to be 

 included in the boulder-clay which cropped out on the shore about four yards to the 

 west ; that it contained Beleinnitella mucronata, and that the flints, though rather 

 discontinuous, seemed to form a C-like curve (on this detail, however, we were not 

 quite agreed) . He records chalk as exposed to west and to east of the eastern mass, 

 but whether connected with it or as separate boulders could not be determined. 



- Two varieties of boulder-clay occur in the Cromer district, one of a bluish-grey 

 colour, another rather browner, more sandy, more distinctly stratified, and sometimes 

 less pebbly. "West of Cromer the latter is the commoner ; east of it, on the whole, 

 we think, the former, which is often the lower in position, but sometimes the one 

 seems to pass into the other, or even to replace it. 



