To the Norwich Geological Society. 77 
the cultivated surface of Norfolk is not glad to find here and there, 
though very rarely, a tract of wild country that helps to lead back 
the imagination to those good old times when as yet the hand of 
Man had not materially altered the face of the country; when 
Nature, in fact, had it pretty much her own way. In thus looking 
back we are at once faced by the conclusion that Man is older than 
most of the present minor features of Norfolk. The deposits in 
which the earliest remains of Paleolithic man have been obtained, 
when he was associated with the Mammoth, Rhinoceros, Hippo- 
potamus, Bison, Musk-sheep, Hyena, and the old British Lion, are 
older than the present valleys in East Norfolk. For we find no 
records of any Paleolithic implements in the valley deposits of 
the Bure, the Wensum, the Yare, or the Waveney. The finding 
of an implement at Cringleford by Mr. Harmer is significant, but it 
is quite possible that the deposit in which this occurred, like that 
at Hoxne, in Suffolk, was cut through during the formation of the 
present valley. And this locality of Cringleford, together with that 
of Runton, are the only ones in the eastern half of Norfolk which 
have yielded Palzolithic implements. What the general aspect of 
the country was at this period of Man’s early habitation, I cannot 
pretend to say; nor can I attempt to discuss the relations of the 
three divisions of Paleolithic man, which Mr. Skertchly has been 
led to establish from his observations in the west of Norfolk, and 
which are separated one from another by the periods of glaciation 
assigned to the great Chalky Boulder-clay, and to the Purple Boulder- 
clay of Yorkshire and North Lincolnshire. Great changes came 
about after these beds were formed. A large part of the country 
was submerged, as much as 1,300 feet in Wales, and subsequently 
re-elevated. Severe glacial conditions again desolated the northern 
tracts during the formation of the Hessle Boulder-clay. These 
gradually ameliorating, the climate became once more suitable for 
man, the present drainage system of Norfolk was established, and from 
this period we date the introduction of our modern fauna and flora.! 
Then Britain was united to the Continent; the Chalk of Dover 
was not then separated from the main land, for, as Verstegan 
remarked in 1605, in speaking of the wolf, no man “would ever 
transport any of that race for the goodness of that breed, out of the 
continent into any Isles.” And over this connecting area did the 
animals and plants migrate. Norfolk became a land of heath, wood- 
land, and swamp, tenanted by the Wolf, Brown Bear, Reindeer, Irish 
Elk, and other Deer; by the long-fronted Ox or Celtic Shorthorn, the 
Urus, and the Beaver ; and I may add, also, the Fresh-water Tortoise 
discovered at Wretham, and brought to our notice more recently 
from Mundesiey. Since then Great Britain has been isolated from 
Ireland and the continent, and the coast of Norfolk has undoubtedly 
been encroached upon to an extent we can scarcely calculate—it 
may bé two or three miles. Land has, however, been gained in our 
eastern valleys and in the Fenland. Beyond the widening and deepen- 
ing of valleys, the actual surface of the country would not seem 
1 See J. Geikie, Great Ice Age, 2nd ed. p. 570 (table). 
