388 Reports and Proceedings. 



imagine that suet an extent of gravel could have been spread out ; 

 and the inclination of the flattest of the table-lands is for a river 

 such as only mountain- streams have, and quite incompatible with the 

 spreading out of large even surfaces more than twenty miles across. 

 It is considered more probable that the materials of the gravel 

 were brought down from the chalk country on all sides by rivers, 

 and spread out in an inlet of the sea shut in on the south, and open- 

 ing out eastwards. This view is not without difficulties ; it involves 

 a gradual upheaval of the land, which, when the highest gravels 

 now remaining were being spread out at or near the sea-level, must 

 have stood more than 400 feet lower; and a considerable part of 

 this upheaval must have taken place since the formation of the 

 gravel in which implements fashioned by man are imbedded. 



Discussion. — The President referred to the raised beach at Brighton, -which he 

 had traced thence as far as Chichester. He inquired -what evidence there was of the 

 marine origin and contemporaneity of the beds identified with this beach by Mr. 

 Codrington. 



Mr. Whitaker noticed the occurrence of gravels similar to those described by Mr. 

 Codrington on the slope between Canterbury and Heme Bay, as indicative of the 

 presence of a large river. He agreed with the author in considering that the white 

 gravel was produced by the decolourization of the red : and remarked that it was 

 imusual to find angular gravels of thoroughly marine type. 



Mr. C. Moore remarked that the gravels and brick-earths from Salisbury westward 

 are all of freshwater origin, and contain the remains of frogs in great abundance, 

 together with freshwater shells, bones of Arvicolm, etc. 



Sir Charles Lyell was inclined to ascribe the formation of the gravels described to 

 the sudden melting of snow in great quantities. He referred to the presence of 

 Sarsen stones as indicating that there was force enough to carry large masses. 



Prof. Ramsay referred to the great denudation of Eocene strata which must have 

 taken place before the present form of the land was produced, as implying an 

 immense amount of river-action, the immediate results of which are now masked by 

 the modifications produced by subsequent sub-aerial changes of more limited extent. 

 He maintained that the finding of flint implements at various elevations furnished no 

 evidence of change in the relative level of sea and land. 



Mr. Codrington, in reply, stated that the gravels were not valley-gravels such as 

 those mentioned by Mr. Moore. He did not see how glacial action could have spread 

 the gravels over fiat table-lands. 



2. " On the relative position of the Forest-bed and the Ohilles- 

 ford Clay in Norfolk and Suffolk, and on the real position of the 

 Forest-bed." By the Eev. John Gunn, M.A., F.G.S. 



The author commenced by stating that both at Easton Bavent 

 and at Kessingland the Forest-bed is to be seen forming part of the 

 beach, or of the foot of the cliff, and underlying the Chillesford 

 Clay. He considered that the soil of the Forest-bed had been depo- 

 sited in an estuary, and that, after its elevation, the trees, of which 

 the stools are now visible along the coast, grew upon it, and the 

 true Forest-bed was formed. After the submergence of this, first 

 freshwater, then fluvio-marine, and finally marine deposits, were 

 formed upon it ; and the author proposed to give the whole of these 

 deposits the name of the " Forest-bed series." The author sug- 

 gested that the Forest-bed itself is represented inland by the stony 

 bed which lies immediately upon the chalk and between it and the 

 Fluvio-marine and Marine Crags, his theory being that the surface 

 of the Chalk, after supporting a Forest-bed Fauna, was gradually 

 covered up by successive Crag deposits. 



