Norwich Geological Society. 331 



than the Norwich Crag, which rested immediately on the Chalk. 

 The Eev. S. W. King said many living shells could now be found 

 upon the verge of low water-mark, but should the shore upon 

 which they rested be depressed slowly and gradually, the area on 

 which those shells were would be increased as they advanced to a 

 higher level. Mr. Bayfield was under the impression that Mr. 

 Taylor said the percentage of specimens found in the upper bed 

 would, perhaps, be a guide as to whether or not they were deposited 

 in a deep sea ; for instance, Astarte horealis was found in the lower 

 bed, but in still ten times greater ijumbers in the upper. The Chairman 

 thought but little dependance was to be placed upon shells. If the 

 climate of the Upper Crag were truly represented by the many arctic 

 species found by Mr. Taylor, it was impossible that the Forest Bed 

 could have existed at that time. 



Monthly Meeting, May 7. — ^The following paper was read by 

 Mr. J. E. Taylor, the Hon. Secretary : — " The Upper and Lower Crags 

 in Norfolk." Since I had the honour to read my last paper on this 

 subject before the society, I have from time to time followed it up, 

 and the results I now purpose to lay before this meeting. 



That the two Crags — the Upper and Lower — are distinct in their 

 character, I have now no doubt. Mr. Searles V. Wood, jun., has, 

 since I read my last paper, recognised the Upper Crag as identical 

 with the Chillesford bed, not only from its organic remains, but also 

 from the strata which under- and overlie it. In this he is supported 

 by his father on conchological grounds. Mr. Gr. Maw also, with 

 whom I went over the ground, and who went straight from Norwich 

 to Chillesford to compare the two beds, has identified the Upper 

 Crag with the Chillesford bed. 



At the last meeting I was quoted as having stated that the Upper 

 Crag was a deep sea deposit. This I never intended to assert. What 

 I first stated was, that the Upper bed bore evidence of deeper water 

 deposition than the Lower. I spoke in the comparative, not in the 

 positive, degree. 



Taking the mean of the shells belonging to the Lower Crag, I 

 find that those which are rarest belong to the deepest zones. Thus 

 Pecten tigrinus may now be dredged from between thirty and forty 

 fathoms off the coast of Norway, It is exceedingly rare in the 

 Norwich Crag. Acmea virginea, and Bela turricula, are also instances 

 of deep sea shells which are rare. I have been unable .to trace any 

 of the Lower Crag shells whose living representatives have a greater 

 depth than seven to twenty-two fathoms. This seems to have been 

 the extreme depth of the estuary of the Lower Crag, the great mass 

 of the shells belonging to an average depth of ten fathoms. 



To contrast these circumstances with the Upper Crag. In the 

 first place, we do not meet with the slightest trace of freshwater or 

 brackish water shells, many of which are met with in the Lower Crag. 

 The littoral shells are almost nil, and even those which are occasion- 

 ally found, bear evidence of having been greatly waterworn. Some 

 are bored by the little burrowing sponge, Cliona. But occasional 



