404 The late Sir Joseph Prestmch — 



V. — Memoeanda. chiefly on the Drift Deposits in various 

 PARTS OF England and Wales : being Extracts from the 

 Notebooks and other MSS. of the late Sir Joseph 

 Prestwich, M.A., D.C.L., E.R.S., etc. 

 Communicated by Lady Pkestwich, and edited by H. B. "Woodward, F.E..S. 



[For a period of nearly sixty years Sir Joseph Prestwich recorded his geological 

 observations in a series of notebooks. These records, together with the illustrative 

 sections, were afterwards copied, in many instances, into folio volumes dealing 

 respectively with the Eocene and Miocene, the Pliocene and Post-Pliocene formations, 

 and with well-sinkings, springs, etc. The systematic arrangement and indejdng of 

 his very copious notes no doubt greatly facilitated the labours of the author. The 

 majority of his notes and sections have been published, but here and there among 

 the notebooks and MSS. there are records of pits and railway-cuttings, as well as 

 some statements of opinion, which appear never to have been printed. A selection 

 of these is now given, together with references to published papers dealing with the 

 same subjects. All additions are put in square brackets. 



It was the desire of Sir J. Prestwich to have dealt more fully with the phenomena 

 of the Glacial Period, but owing to the many calls upon his time, and to his aim 

 invariably to obtain and to submit fully to his readers all the evidence bearing upon 

 his subjects, he was led to postpone for many years his more elaborate works. Thus 

 his important papers on the Crag formations were issued long after most of his 

 observations had been made. Meanwhile other geologists had entered the field and 

 made known many of the facts which he had previously gathered, a proceeding 

 natural enough and one by no means to be regretted. Thus Sir J. Prestwich 

 remarks in his paper on the Westleton Beds, Part I (Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc, 

 vol. xlvi, 1890, p. 86), that " The Memoirs of the [Geological] Survey, to which 

 I shall have frequent occasion to refer, now supply a mass of valuable details, which 

 greatly facilitate the task and do away with the necessity of much local description." 



The notebooks rarely contain any particular expressions of opinion ; they simply 

 record facts and only occasionally suggest correlations. The conclusions were for 

 the most part worked out subsequently and embodied in various published papers. 



Among the MSS. left by Prestwich is the rough di-aft of the Table of Contents 

 of a paper dated 1892. It includes the following heads : — ] 



On the Glacial Series of the South of England. 



The history of the Westleton Beds showed that the valleys of 



the South of England were excavated subsequently to them. 

 The Westleton the base of the Quaternary or Glacial. The 



Rubble Drift the last term. These are two definite 



horizons. 

 The Westleton followed by elevation. 

 Subaerial action commenced in the west, while marine action 



continued on the east coast. 

 Distribution of Glacial beds affected thereby. 

 Abrupt setting in of Lower Boulder-clay on the Westleton Beds. 

 Gradual rise of land westward — a slow process. 



On the Loioer Glacial Series. 



I have shown^ that, during the deposition of the Westleton 

 Shingle, a movement of depression of the surface from eastward to 

 westward caused it to pass transgressively over the Crag series 

 of the Eastern Counties and the Lower Tertiaries of Essex and 



1 Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc, vol. xlvi (1890), pp. 114, 148, 178. 



