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PEOCEEDINGS OP THE GEOLO&ICAL SOCIETY. [May 9, 



that many of the rocks of the north of England occur here*, and 

 among them great boulders of Mountain-limestone, such as are met 

 with at Elsworth and Wimpole. Boulder-clay also occurs on the 

 south side of the city, and on the landward side of most of the hills 

 in the Pens. 



In the Museum of the Geological Society are a few shells from 

 March, Tellina soliduJa and Ostrea eduUs, which were presented in 

 1846 by H. M. Lee, Esq. They are marked " Eaised beach." 



The deposit at March was subsequently examined by Professor 

 Liveing and the Eev. 0. Eisher, who collected many fossils, and 

 presented them to the Woodwardian Museum. These also were 

 marked " Eaised beach." But on visiting March in 1860, 1 found a 

 section 150 yards long, displaying a gravel included in the Boulder- 

 clay. The gravel was thin, a foot or so, though thicker east and 



Fig. 1. — Section at March, m Easter 1860. 



a. Eoulder-clay, not very character- 

 istic, b. G-ravel. 

 c. Many shells, but few species. 

 ■1. Gravel. d\ Fine gravel. 



e. Boulder-clay. 

 /. Gravel. f\ Sand. 

 g. Substriated Boulder-clay, 

 boulders. 



Few 



west, and overlain, as shown in the section, by clay containing cha- 

 racteristic specimens of Septaria striated by drifting, hard chalk, 

 often deeply grooved as though by ice, and one bough of a tree some 

 3 inches in diameter, converted into imperfect lignite. The gravel, 

 which was largely made up of small pieces of flint and of sand, 

 contains an abundance of comminuted shells and many whole ones, 

 Tellina and Turritella being commonest. The Boulder-clay, where 

 seen underneath, has the usual characters. In the middle of the pit 

 the gravel, which was deeply ferruginous, and consisted largely of 

 small flint-fragments, came to the surface ; and under this was a 

 layer much more sandy, with some rounded pebbles and few flints, 

 and half made up of shells. Buccinum, Trophon, Litorina, Oarclium, 

 Tellina, and Ostrea were most abundant ; and the greater part were 

 resting in natural. positions. The deposit much resembled the Norwich 

 Crag of Thorpe, or of the Thorpe near Aldborough. 



'^ The monks appear to have observed the peculiar character of the Boulder- 

 clay as early as the time of Henry the Sixth ; for in Lonelich's translation of the 

 Sank Eyal, a copy of which is in the library of Corpus Christi College, Cam- 

 bridge, the description of a wound where the flesh had been burnt away to the 

 bone, is illustrated by the lines, 



"And the bon as whit it lay, 

 Lik as doth chalk in the clay." 



