Clement Reid—Glacial Deposits of Cromer. 59 
affect the overlying gravels, but all the more important contortions 
are of later date, as will be shown below. The lithological character 
is like that of the First Till, but the deposit is more sandy, and the 
bedding is conspicuous though irregular, as if the materials had 
been deposited in flattish heaps. 
Sands.—Resting on this Boulder-clay we find beds of well-strati- 
fied sand and marl of undoubtedly sedimentary origin. These I have 
included in the Contorted Drift, though it is quite possible they may 
be the equivalents of the Middle Glacial near Yarmouth. The sands 
are nearly unfossiliferous, the only evidence of their marine origin as 
yet found between Cromer and Hasbro’ being a single perfect valve 
of Balanus. West of Cromer, however, a patch of sand at Runton has 
yielded a fauna closely corresponding to that of the Middle Glacial, in- 
cluding among other species Nucula Cobboldia, an Anomia, and Nassa 
reticosa. This patch is unfortunately so violently twisted into the 
Contorted Drift that I cannot say whether it is the equivalent of the 
above sands or of the gravel next to be described. 
Middle Glacial.—Above the Contorted Drift, and resting on a 
slightly eroded surface of that deposit, there are sands and gravels, 
often very coarse, like the ‘“‘ cannon-shot” gravels of Norwich. These 
are identified by Messrs. Wood and Harmer with the Middle Glacial, 
and in a paper to the Geological Society’ they drew attention 
to the cliffs near Cromer as showing undoubted evidence of inter- 
glacial valley erosion. With regard to the correlation of these 
gravels with the Middle Glacial, I think this is a very doubtful 
point, for both by stratigraphical position and lithological character 
they will do at least equally well for the Cannon-shot gravels, 
which north of Norwich are intimately connected with and possibly 
replace part of the Chalky Boulder-clay.? 
On the second point I am forced entirely to disagree with Messrs. 
Wood and Harmer; for, after spending upwards of two years on the 
coast, and also examining a large tract of country in the Waveney 
Valley, I cannot find the slightest trace of inter-glacial valley erosion. 
The basin-like hollows in which the gravels rest are clearly in every 
case the result of contortion and not of erosion, for the dip of the 
underlying beds is always conformable to the curve of the basin, 
however sharp it may be. There is a slightly eroded line at the 
junction, as mentioned above, but it has nothing to do with the 
basins. In the cliffs between Weybourn and Hasbro’ there are about 
fifty of these scoops, all of which I have measured or sketched, and 
all show this general conformity in the underlying beds. 
* Age and Mode of Formation of the Contortions.—For more than 
two years I was quite unable to account for the peculiarity of the 
contortions in the Cromer cliffs. It was evident that they were 
later than the Middle Glacial, as that formation was also disturbed, 
and yet at the same time it was clear that contortions affecting the 
overlying beds were often much more complicated in the beds 
beneath, and also that many of the most violent contortions were 
1 Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol, xxxiii. p. 78. . 
2 See H. B. Woodward, Proc. Norwich Geol. Soc. vol. i. p. 58. 
