456 H. B. fVoodivard — The Bure Valley and Westleton Beds. 



Westleton are not Bure Valley Beds, but that they also are of 

 Glacial age. This supposition is sufficiently startling to need a 

 little further support, if possible. 



I may here quote a passage written by Mr. Harmer in 1869. He 

 says, " The only doubt felt by Mr. Wood and himself in connexion 

 with the beds of the Crag series in Norfolk is, whether or not the 

 pebbly sands of Belaugh and Weybourne are identical with the 

 pebbly sands and pebble beds which overlie the Chillesford Clay in 

 the neighbourhood of Norwich, of Loddon, of Halesworth, and of 

 Beccles, or whether they do not form a still later deposit." ^ These 

 remarks show there was room for doubt. The uncertainties of 

 geological correlation are, however, borne out in a remarkable way 

 as I have elsewhere mentioned.^ In the summer of 1876 I had the 

 pleasure of accompanying Mr. J. H. Blake in an excursion to West- 

 leton and Dunwich. We then satisfied ourselves that the Westleton 

 shingle was the same as tlmt exposed at the top of the Dunwich 

 Cliff. Mr. Whitaker has informed me that he has come to the same 

 conclusion. There can indeed be no question about the matter, 

 when the beds are traced directly from one spot to the other. 



The shingle at Westleton was originally grouped as Lower Glacial 

 (equivalent to their Bure Valley Beds) and that at Dunwich as 

 Post-Glacial ^ (Plateau gravel) by Messrs. Wood and Harmer ; 

 while the former was grouped as Pre-glacial, and the latter as Inter- 

 glacial by Prof. Prestwich. Thus the Dunwich pebble-gravel was 

 regarded by Prof. Prestwich as on the same horizon as the " Middle 

 Glacial " sands, which he called Inter-glacial Boulder sands and. 

 gravels. The Dunwich shingle is indeed a portion of the main mass 

 of beds which constitute the " Middle Glacial " formation of Messrs. 

 Wood and Harmer. This agrees with the evidence obtained near 

 Loddon. 



Hence not only are the Westleton Beds distinct from the Bure 

 Valley Beds (Norwich Crag Series), but they must be distinct fi'om 

 the Mundesley Beds which underlie the Lower Glacial Drift on the 

 Norfolk coast. 



I should not omit to mention that in places, as at Sotterley, 

 between Beccles and Southwold, Messrs. Wood and Harmer have 

 detected pebble-gravel beneath the Lower Glacial Brickearth — this, 

 however, may belong to the Norwich Crag Series. Moreover, there 

 are beds of laminated brickearth, at Rockland, Surlingham, Diss, 

 and other places in Norfolk, that overlie the sands and gravels 

 grouped as Middle Glacial, and are directly overlain by the Chalky 

 Boulder Clay. 



For my own part, under the term " Lower Glacial Drift," I would 

 include not only the Cromer Till and Contorted Drift, but also the 

 "Middle Glacial," as I regard them as intimately connected : hence 

 the Westleton Beds would be Lower Glacial, the Mundesley Beds 

 would come in the debateable ground called Pre-glacial, the Bure 

 Valley Beds are Pliocene. 



1 Geol. Mag. Vol. VI. p. 234. « Proc. Norwich Geol. Soc. vol. i. p. 47. 



2 This was owing to the dovetailing of a mass of Chalky Boulder Clay. 



