22 T. Mellard Reade—The Cromer Forest Bed. 
and valuable matter which he has assiduously unearthed; and dis- 
satisfaction at his attempts to destroy one of the cherished convictions 
of childhood—faith in the Cromer Forest Bed! Mr. Reid evidently 
does not believe in the Cromer Forest Bed; but then what would a 
Manual of Geology be without it? This either he or his superior 
officers have felt, and the name ‘‘ Forest Bed” has therefore been 
retained for a bed which, according to his own confession, “least 
deserves the name.” ? ‘This course, though illogical, is no doubt a 
concession to popular geological prejudice. 
But my object in writing is to try and point out some consolatory 
considerations which have perhaps been lost sight of by the author 
of this careful memoir, by which those who are inclined that way 
may still preserve some shreds of faith in the observations of the 
older geologists. 
The term ‘Forest Bed” is now given to an estuarine series of 
varying and often considerable thickness, viz. from 21 feet to 1 
foot,” with in some places a “ Lower Fresh-water Bed” underlying 
and in others an ‘‘Upper Fresh-water Bed” overlying it, and capped 
in places with a “ Zeda-myalis Bed,” which again is covered between 
Mundesley and Runton with an “Arctic Fresh-water Bed,” the whole 
having superimposed upon them the Cromer Till and Contorted 
Drift; the basement rock being either the Weybourn Crag or the 
Chalk, according to the locality of the section. 
The reason Mr. Reid urges against the name which he has been 
forced to retain, is the evidence he considers he has gathered, that 
the stools of trees found in the deposit have not grown on the spot, 
but have drifted down some large river and been stranded in the 
form of snags. A somewhat similar explanation was volunteered 
to account for the Post-Glacial sub-marine Forest Bed on either side 
of the estuary of the Mersey; and I have been struck by the re- 
markable similarity of the arguments made use of in both cases. 
It is not my intention to prejudge one case by what happened in the 
other, but I may say that, after many examinations of these Post- 
Glacial Forest Beds, there remain not more than two individuals 
who have failed to be convinced that the trees have grown on the 
spot where the stools stand.* 
From the time of W. Arderon in 1746 to the present “the roots 
and trunks of trees” have been noticed by many observers at low 
water on the coast near Hasborough; and the Memoir fairly states 
all the historical information relating to the subject, so it is un- 
necessary for me to detail it here. That the stools in their appear- 
ance and arrangement were similar to those of the Post-Glacial 
Forest Beds—that is, they were numerous, erect, and in the same 
horizon—is pretty evident, or such good observers as R. C. Taylor, 
the Rev. Mr. Gunn, and others wouid scarcely have thought they 
were in the position of growth. But Mr. Reid states he has pulled 
up upwards of a hundred stools at different localities,* and found 
that “the roots do not end in small fibres, but’ are broken off, 
1 Page 22. 2 See sections, pages 29 and 41. 
3 Q. J. G.S. vol. xxxiv. p.“447. * Page 23. 
