H. B. Woodward— The Sure VaUeij and Westkton Beds. 453 



Pi-of. Prestwich, while applj'inj^ the name to clay-beds in various 

 places, observes that " In Norfolk, however, as the sands and shingle 

 overlj'ing the Chillesford Clay become interstratified with beds of 

 laminated clay very similar in appearance to the Chillesford Clay, 

 it might be a question whether the bed which I have referred to 

 that deposit in Norfolk belongs to it, or whether the Chillesford 

 Clay is represented by the Laminated Clays of Mr. Gunn."^ This 

 questionable position is after all the safest one to take up ; but as an 

 instance of the intricate nature of the case, I may mention that on 

 one occasion of a meeting in Norfolk, when the discussion about 

 these clay-beds waxed warm, a distinguished Norfolk geologist 

 exclaimed that he thought after all that the Chillesford Clay at 

 Chillesford was not the Chillesford Clay ! So much for this inter- 

 esting deposit. 



The Westleton beds, which Professor Prestwich described in 

 1870, from the village of Westleton, between Yoxford and Dunwich 

 in Suffolk, attain at this typical locality " a thickness of from 30 to 

 40 feet, and consist of a series of stratified beds of well-rounded 

 flint-pebbles imbedded in white sand, and with two or three sub- 

 ordinate beds of light-coloured clay," looking, as Prof. Prestwich 

 remarked, " more like the pebble-beds of Blackheath than any 

 other beds in the Eastern counties." - Continuations of these 

 Westleton Beds have been traced to Southwold, Henham Park, 

 Halesworth, and other places in Suffolk — localities which I believe 

 are rarely fossiliferous, and yield no distinctive species. In Norfolk, 

 however, the Westleton Beds have been correlated with certain 

 deposits grouped as " Bure Valley Beds " by Messrs. Wood and 

 Harmer, described in 1866 by the former geologist under that 

 name,^ and known also as the " Pebbly Sands and Pebble Beds." 

 When, therefore, Prof. Prestwich's paper was published in 1871, 

 Messrs. Wood and Harmer opposed the introduction of the term 

 " Westleton Beds," and expressed their indignation in a footnote on 

 pp. XV and xvi of the Introduction to the Supplement to the ' Crag 

 Mollusca ' (1872). 



The Bure Valley Beds comprise most of the pebbly sands and 

 gravels that overlie the Chalk and underlie the Lower Glacial 

 Brickearth (Contorted Drift, etc.), in the valley of the river Bure. 

 They are characterized by Tellina Balthica, and chiefly on account 

 of the presence of this shell, the Bure Valley Beds were separated 

 from the Norwich Crag by Messrs. Wood and Harmer, and grouped 

 by them as Lower Glacial. The typical Bure Valley Beds were 

 described by them at Belaugh, Wroxham, Crostwick, etc. ; and 

 only at Horstead, Coltishall, and Burgh-next- Aylsham, were fossili- 

 ferous sections of the Norwich Crag (Chillesford Beds) recognized, 

 by these authorities, in the Bure Valley, During my geological 

 survey of the district I failed to find any satisfactory separating line 

 between the so-called Bure Valley Beds and the Norwich Crag, and 



1 Quart. Joiim. Geol. Soc. vol. xx^^i. p. 470. 



2 Quart. .Touru. Geol. Soc. vol. xxvii. p. 461, 

 2 Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. xxii. p. 547, 



