144 Correspondence — G. W. Lamplugh. 



Thus, while agreeing with Dr. Woolacott on the naain point, I was 

 unable to convince myself that any of the gravelly bands intercalated 

 with the thicker drift to the northward and southward of the Raised 

 Beach section were continuous with the beach, as he believes. 

 Dr. Woolacott's section, Fig. 2 (p. 68), is, of course, diagrammatic, 

 and expresses an interpretation of the evidence which may or may 

 not be correct. As will be gathered from his photographs (Plate V), 

 the investigation of the upper part of the cliff, except at the pathway, 

 is dangerous, because of the rock-precipices below, and could not be 

 safely accomplished without a rope ; but at a few spots a little way 

 northward, which we managed to reach while together, the gravels 

 among the drift proved to be of the ordinary type, and lacked the 

 distinctive characters of the beach-gravel. 



Remembering that at both Sewerby and Speeton (Yorkshire) the 

 xnarine beds at the base of the drifts are at the same level as stratified 

 Glacial deposits of the immediate neighbourhood, but are separated 

 from them by intervening bands of boulder-clay banked upon old 

 slopes, I was perhaps predisposed to consider that this was the case 

 also at Easington ; and I saw nothing to contradict the idea. 

 The comparatively thin drift overlying the Raised Beach was poorly 

 ■exposed ; and, so far as I could judge, it might be regarded as the 

 feather-edge of the thicker masses to the north and south, which 

 must obviously wedge out here upon the bare rock-slope of Beacon 

 Hill (as shown in Fig. 1 of Dr. Woolacott's communication). The 

 position of the patch of Raised Beach, close under the lee of the big 

 ridge of Permian limestone forming Beacon Hill, was strongly 

 reminiscent of the position of the Sewerby Beach, similarly sheltered 

 irom the impact of south-flowing ice by the Chalk ridge of Flam- 

 borough Head. 



Far-transported pebbles are certainly more abundant in the 

 Easington Beach than at Sewerby and Speeton ; and it was pointed 

 out to me that they include some of Cheviot origin, which are 

 believed to denote a comparatively late-Glacial date for the deposit. 

 Also the altitude of the beach raises another difficulty in its 

 correlation with that of Sewerby. Yet there are many considerations 

 which incline me to the opinion that this old sea-margin may have 

 been in existence before the actual glaciation of the district ; and 

 I think that the suggested correlation of the beach-gravel with the 

 wide-spread gravel among the boulder-clays has not yet been proven. 



We may anticipate that Dr. Woolacott, with the stimulus of his 

 present success, will sooner or later discover other indubitable traces 

 of the beach in similar positions on this difficult coast. Meanwhile 

 it may be well to suspend judgment as to the position of the deposit 

 in the Glacial succession. 



G. W. Lamplugh. 



St. Albans. 



lath February, 1922. 



