Notices of Memoira — F. W. Harmer — Pliocene Bejjosits. 567 



I. — On a Pkoposed New Classification of the Pliocene 

 Deposits of the East of England. By F. W. Harmer, F.G.S.^ 



THE term Ked Crag, including as it does beds differing considei-- 

 ably in age, is vague, and, when we attempt to correlate the 

 East Anglian deposits with those of other countries, inconvenient ; 

 the Scaldisien zone of Belgium, with its southern fauna, for exaiBple, 

 representing one part of it, and the Amstelien of Holland, in which 

 northern, and even Arctic, mollusca ax'e common, another. It seems 

 desirable, therefore, while retaining it for general use, to adopt for 

 its various horizons some more definite and distinctive names. 



The Upper Crag deposits arrange themselves geographically in 

 horizontal rather than in vertical sequence, assuming always a more 

 recent as well as a more boreal character as we trace them from 

 south to north. They are the littoral accumulations of a sea which 

 was from time to time retreating in a northerly direction. 



The classification now proposed, which is based on palasontological 

 evidence, is as follows : — 



Older Pliocene. 

 Lenhani Beds ) 



(Zone of Area diluvii) ] 



Newer Pliocene. 



Coralline Crag 



Essex Crag. 



. . (Zone of Neptnnea contraria) 



Lenhamian 



Gedgraviau 



Waltonian 



Walton horizon 

 Oakley horizon 



JSfewbournian 



Diestien Sands. 

 "Waenrode ? 



Zone a. Isoeardia cot'. 



Scaldisien. 

 Poederlien. 



Butleyan ... 



Icenian — Lower horizon 

 Upper horizon 



Ghillesfordicot 



Amstelien. 



Eed Crag of Newbourn, Sutton, 



and Waldringfield 



Eed Crag of Butley and Bawdsey \ 



(Zone of Cardimn Greenlandiciim) ] 



... Norwich Crag, Southern part. 



,, ,, Northern part ) 



(Zone of Astarte horealis) ) 



(Estuarine) 

 Chillesford Clay and Sands. 

 Crag of Weybourne and Belaugh ) 

 (Zone of Tellina baUhica). j 

 Forest-bed (so-called) Series. 



An analysis of the characteristic mollusca of the different divisions 

 respectively of the Crag here suggested shows a gradual diminution 

 of the percentages of extinct and southern forms and a gradual 

 increase in northern and recent species. The difference between 

 the Gedgravian (Coralline Crag) and Waltonian is shown to be less 

 than has been supposed, and the former is here grouped as Newer 

 instead of as Older Pliocene, as hitherto. 



The Crag of Oakley, near Harwich, from which the author has 

 recently obtained neai'ly 300 species of mollusca, belongs to an 

 horizon different to anything previously described, and serves to 

 bridge over the interval between the Crag of Walton-on-the-Naze 

 and the Ked Crag of Suffolk. Its fauna closely resembles that 'of 



1 Bead before Sect. C (Geology), British Association, Dover Meeting, Sept. 1899". 



