Rev. E. Hill— Fall of Eccles Tower, Norfolk. 229 



resting on the Chalk at Capel, Lenhana, and elsewhere in Kent, 

 have been derived from detritus supplied by the denudation of 

 Neocomian strata. 



On the other hand, that sands such as these might have been 

 directly derived from the disintegration of granitic rocks, is not 

 impossible. Speaking of the quartz-grains derived from quartzose 

 felsite, Dr. Sorby says: "But very often there is a remarkable round- 

 ing of the angles, which might easily lead anyone to think that they 

 were water- worn. Even the grains of quartz derived from granite 

 sometimes show this character to a less extent, but the rounding is 

 usually accompanied by small surface ridges, which clearly sho\V 

 that their rounded form was not due to mechanical wearing." ^ This 

 phenomenon is the result of corrosion of the surfaces of the quartz- 

 grains by alkaline solutions formed by the decomposition of the 

 felspathic constituents of the rock, and it therefore remains to be 

 decided whether the sand grains in our ironstone were rounded by 

 corrosion or by attrition. If the former, then we may assume that 

 the sand has been immediately derived from some granitic rock; but 

 where it came from is a difficult question to answer. If from any 

 great distance, the material might have been ice-borne, but this is 

 pure speculation ; and from the absence of grains composed of 

 several adherent crystals or grains of different mineral constitution, 

 I am inclined to favour the view that such rounding as these 

 grains present is due to attrition, and that they have been derived 

 from sandstones, probably of Neocomian age. Under what con- 

 ditions they were deposited in post-Cretaceous times I venture to 

 express no definite opinion ; but it seems hardly probable that the 

 cementing process took place under the pressure of any appreciable 

 thickness of superincumbent rock, since the quartz-grains are more 

 or less widely separated by the cementing material, a circumstance 

 which would seem to indicate that the sands were subjected to little 

 or no pressure from overlying deposits, and consequently that the 

 ferruginous matter of the cement was not infiltered from superjacent 

 strata. That the deposit is not lacustrine seems sufficiently proved 

 by the fossils which have been found in it. 



IX. — The Tower of Eccles-by-the-Sea. 

 By Rev. E. Hill, F.G.S. 



THE church-tower of Eccles-by-the-Sea, on the coast of Norfolk, 

 once buried in the moving sand-dunes, has been rendered 

 classical by Lyell through his description of it in his " Principles." 

 Such a monument should surely not be allowed to pass away 

 without an obituary notice. 



Lyell gives drawings of its appearance in 1839 and in 1862. In 

 April 1893 Professor Eonney and I, while at Cromer, paid a visit to 

 it, making measurements and sketches. The foot of the tower was 

 then about thirty yards from a neap-tide high-water mark, and 

 its level scarce four feet above : spring-tides must have nearly or 

 1 Op. cit. pp. 21, 22. 



