72 Dr. Woolacott — A Raised Beach in Durham. 



Valley during the formation of these deposits, but there is clear 

 proof that a fauna of this type existed while the leafy clays (already 

 noticed, p. 70) of a somewhat similar age were being deposited at 

 Kirmington (Lines.). The moUusca there include Scrohicularia 

 piperata, Cardium eclule, Mytilus edulis, Tellina halthica (B, A. 

 Report, 1904, p. 273). I do not, however, propose to discuss the 

 extent, thickness, and character of these estuarine deposits in the 

 Tyne-Wear region until the higher Raised Beach has been as definitely 

 proved as the Easington one, and tlfe results of Merrick's study 

 of these deposits published. 



There is much evidence which, in my opinion, is quite definite and 

 sufficient, but which might be more fully investigated for the 

 occurrence of late Pleistocene marine and estuarine deposits up to 

 140-50 feet in north-east Durham, of a slightly later age than the 

 Easington Raised Beach. ^ It includes (1) a cave at Marsden, (2) a cliff 

 with bedded deposits, containing shells and shell fragments resting 

 against it on Fulwell and Cleadon Hills, (3) apparently wave-worn 

 rock surfaces on which the dej)osits rest, (4) shell-bearing gravels and 

 sands which are distinct from the Kames and Fluvio-glacial gravels 

 and sands, (5) horizontally and current-bedded gravels and sands, 

 (6) ripple-marked sands, and (7) extensive deposits of leafy and other 

 clays. There are several sections in which jjortions of these deposits 

 are exposed, but it is difficult to get one similar to that at Easington, 

 which would indisputably prove their marine origin. Such sections 

 have been described (as e.g. the exposure in Fulwell Quarries, 

 which I examined during 1900-6), and it is hoped that one will soon 

 be again. A critical examination of the series of exposures which 

 can be seen at the present tim.e would, however, be quite sufficient 

 to settle conclusively that raised marine and estuarine deposits do 

 occur up to 150 feet above sea-level along the Durham coastal region. 



Addendum I. — The Permian in the immediate neighbourhood 

 of the Easington deposit is also very interesting. In the railway 

 cutting above there is one of the best fossiliferous exposures of the 

 Bryozoa Reef, which is replaced in the cliff by unfossiliferous bedded 

 rocks and breccias, i.e. by its eastern equivalents (Fig. 1). 



Addendum II. — The general sequence of the Pleistocene and 

 Recent deposits along the Durham coastal region is 



^ The higher part of the Easington gravels (90 feet) may be contemporaneous 

 with this 150 beach in north-east Durham. I stated in my paper on " The 

 Superficial Deposits of the Northumberland and Durham Coalfield " (op. jam. 

 cit., p. 75) that the course of cemented gravels of which the Easington deposit 

 forms a part appears to rise very gradually from south to north. This observa- 

 tion, which now that these deposits are proved to be of littoral formation, 

 is one worthy of investigation and surveying, as if it is correct, and due to the 

 uplift only, it should not only be of value in considering the Pleistocene deposits 

 of the East of England, but also in connexion with an important subject in 

 theoretical geology, viz. that such changes of level as the Easington and similar 

 formations prove were due to movements of the terrestrial crust and not to 

 oscillations of the surface of the ocean (Sir A. Geikie, Q.J.G.S., vol. Ix, 1904, 

 p. cix). 



