1864.] WOOD DRIFT OF THE EAST OF ENGLAND. 141 



Beyond (that is, when the fertile soil of the Peak Downs has 

 been passed over), the edges of the quartzites and shales show them- 

 selves over a very extensive country, and here beds of iron- and 

 copper-ore crop out, and are invested on either side by gold-bearing 

 rocks. 



These deposits are at this moment exciting the attention of 

 diggers from all parts of Australia, and drawing them to their ex- 

 ploration; and wealthy merchants are investing largely in costly 

 works and apparatus for bringing the copper-ore into a marketable 

 state. 



I have no doubt that this part of Eastern Australia will bear 

 comparison with, and even rival, our richest metalliferous districts ; 

 whilst New South Wales, by her wealth in coal, facilitates commu- 

 nication from port to port, and contributes thus, unostentatiously, 

 but not the less certainly, to the general prosperity. 



At the same time that I recommend reference to my collection 

 now in the Bath Philosophical Institute, I send herewith specimens 

 which I am of opinion will prove satisfactorily that the coal-seams 

 of New South Wales belong to as old a geological series as those of 

 Europe ; and I can affirm, from examination over a very extensive" 

 area, that they are equally inexhaustible. 



2. On the Drift of the East of England and its Divisions. 

 By S. V. Wood, jun., Esq., E.G.S. 



[This paper was withdrawn by permission of the Council.] 



(Abstract.) 



In this paper the author divides the Drift of the country extend- 

 ing from Flamborough Head to the Thames, and from the Sea on 

 the east to Bedford and Watford on the west, as follows : — a, the 

 Upper Drift, having a thickness of at least 160 feet still remaining 

 in places, b and c, the Lower Drift, consisting of an Upper series 

 (b), having a thickness of from 40 to 70 feet, and a Lower series (c), 

 with a thickness, on the coast near Cromer, of from 200 to 250 feet, 

 but rapidly attenuating inland, c comprises the Boulder-till and the 

 overlying contorted Drift of the Cromer coast, which along that line 

 crop out from below b a few miles inland. In an attenuated form, 

 c also ranges inland as far south as Thetford, and probably to the 

 centre of Suffolk, cropping out from below b by DaUing, Walsing- 

 ham, and Weasenham, and appearing at the bottom of the valleys 

 of central Norfolk. 6 consists of sands, which on the east coast 

 overlie the Eluvio-marine and Bed Crag, but change west and south 

 into gTavels, which pass under a and crop out again on the north, 

 south, and centre of Norfolk, and west of Suffolk and Essex, ex- 

 tending (but capped in many places by «) over most of Herts. The 

 Upper Drift («) consists of the widespread Boulder-clay, which over- 



