44 



Hajwich cliff. 



sn<3 tbrougli 

 Suffolk and 

 preai part of 

 Norfolk. 



SoiTi'rUnies 

 th'.y are 

 riixfcd, some- 

 times the spe- 

 cies smiarated. 



STRATA IN THE NEIGHBOURHOOD OF LONDON. 



formed of about two feet of vegetable mould, twenty or 

 thirty feet of shells, mixed with sand and Gjravel, and from 

 ten to fifteen feet of blue clay. The bed of shells is here 

 exposed for about three hundred paces in iengli), and about 

 a hundred feet in breadth. 



Immediately beyond the Nase the shore suddenly recedes 

 rod forms a kind of estuary, terminated towards the east by 

 t))c projecting clifi' of Harwich, which is capped in a simi- 

 lar manner with beds of these shells. The height of this 

 cliff is from forty to fifty feet, about twenty-two feet of the 

 lower part of which is the upper part of the blue clay stra- 

 tum; " above which", as Mr, Dale observes, " to within 

 *' two feet of the surface, are divers strata of sand and 

 *' gravel mixed with fragments of shells, and small peb- 

 " bles; and it is in some of the last mentioned strata, that 

 *' the fossil shells are imbedded. These fossils lie promis- 

 *' cuonsly toge,ther, bivalve and turbinate, neither do the 

 *' strata in which they Jie observe any order, being some- 

 " times higherand sometimes lower in the cliff; with strata 

 *' of sand, gravel, and fragments of shells between. Nor 

 *' do the shells always lie separate or distinct in the strata, 

 •' Vjut are sometimes found in lumps or masses, something 

 ♦* friable, cemented together with sand and fragments, of a 

 " ferruginous or rusty colour, of whicii all these strata are*," 



The coast of Essex is here separated from that of Suffolk 

 by the river Stour, by which the continuity of this stratum 

 is necessarily interrupted. It however occurs again on the 

 opposite side of the river, and through Suffolk and great 

 part of Norfolk the same bed of shells is found on digging; 

 tlius appearing to extend over a tract of at least forty miles 

 in length. 



These sliells are in general found in the same confused 

 mixture, as is described by Mr. Dale ; but they are also 

 sometimes so disposed, that patches of particular genera 

 and species appear to be occupying the very spots where 

 they had lived. This seems particularly the case with the 

 small pectcns, the mactjce, and the left-turned whelk. 



* Appendix by Sair.uel Dale to the History and Antiquitits of Har- 

 wich and Dovfi court by ^;ilas Taylor, ]73i,' 



From 



