278 Maw — Drift Dej^osits of the Eastern Counties. 



drift on the higlier ground ? as the attenuation of its mass would be 

 likely to take place where the fundamental base was highest. 



The following section (for which 1 am indebted to Mr. Eose,. of 

 Great Yarmouth) of Gorton cliff, between Yarmouth and Lowestoft, 

 is one of the eases cited by Mr. Wood as an example of the supposed 

 occurrence of his "Upper" and ^'Middle drifts," superimposed on 

 his " Lower drifts." 



The cliff is from thirty to fifty feet high, and consists of the 

 following beds : — 



a. Vegetable soil. 



b. Warp of Mr. Trimmer, and "Upper drift " of Mr. Rose. 



G. Boulder- claj', three to nine, or twelve feet thick. Boulders abundant, and varying 

 from a few pounds to several tons in weight. Color of the clay various, occur- 

 ing in extensive patches of blue, drab, and yellow. 



d. Sand having in places false stratification, with shingle at its lowest portion 



fifteen to, twenty feet thick. 



e. Loamy clay, uniform in colour. Erratics small and scarce. 



The bed c is, I presume, that which Mr. Wood would correlate 

 with his Upper, and d with his Middle drift. From what I have 

 seen of the cliffs south of Cromer, I must demur to the opinion that 

 there is anything like a uniform succession of the beds for any 

 distance along this coast. As a general rule, tough Boulder-clays 

 occur towards the base of the cliffs, and sand, gravel, and sUty beds, 

 more or less contorted in its upper parts ; but beyond this there is 

 nothuig like uniformity, and various sections could be described that 

 it would be impossible to trace any kind of resemblance in, to that 

 given above. Sand, gravel. Boulder-clay, and silt-beds interlace in 

 endless variety, and I must take exception to an occasional resem- 

 blance in the order of superposition of the clays and sands along 

 this coast, being adduced in support of their being the equivalents 

 of the Boulder-clay and its underlying gravel bed, covering the 

 higher ground of Suffolk- 



The very variety of these coast-beds seem to distinguish them 

 from the clay of High Suffolk: the high-level clay is generally 

 uniform in color, and the materials smaller, and more even in size 

 than in that of the coast, and it is seldom interstratified with sand 

 beds. I have not seen the Gorton Gliff section, but from Mr. Eose's 

 description, I should judge that the series of beds there super- 

 imposed bears little resemblance to the High-Suffolk drifts. 



Mr. Hull suggests a relationship between the order of sequence 

 laid down by Mr. Wood for the Eastern Counties, and the drift 

 series in the neighbourhood of Manchester, expressing a hope that 

 the drift question may be simplified by Mr. Wood's classification be- 

 ing found applicable to both sides of the Island. I fear the test of 

 facts will scarcely support so simple a classification as the sub- 

 division of the whole Glacial series into upper and lower Boulder- 

 clays, separated by a mass of sands and gravels. Such a uniformity 

 over so great an area would be highly improbable, and scarcely 

 consistent with the lithological changes observable within much 

 smaller areas in the other Tertiary strata ; furthermore, it seems to 

 reduce the whole Drift era into one uniform progressive accumula- 



