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XXVIII. — Extracts from a Me7noir on the Geological Stimcture and 

 Phcenomena of the County of Suffolk, and its Physical Relations with 

 Norfolk a7id Essex. 



By THE Rev. WILLIAM BRANWHITE CLARKE, M.A, F.G.S. 



[Read January 4th and March 8th, 1837.] 



The observations detailed in this memoir were made during 1827, 1828, 

 and 1829, and are arranged under the heads of the physical features of the 

 county, the geological structure, and the effects produced by the causes now 

 in action. 



1. Physical Features. 



The general form of Suffolk is an oblong, of about 47 miles by 27, bounded 

 on the east by the German Ocean, on the south by the river Stour, on the west 

 by the Ouse and Lark, and on the north by the Little Ouse and Waveney. It 

 is impossible not to be struck with the fact, that whilst some of these rivers 

 have a direction from east to west, others flow from N. N. W. to S. S. E., and 

 that the coast section from Harwich to Orford is nearly parallel with the di- 

 rection of the Waveney ; and if these observations be extended to the adjoin- 

 ing counties of Norfolk and Essex, which are similar in geological structure, 

 an accordance will be found in the direction of the rivers Chelmer, Colne 

 and Blackwater, and in the estuaries of the Thames and the Crouch. 



How far these river-channels may be due to dynamical action, it is difiicuU 

 to determine; but I am of opinion, that when they are studied with reference 

 to the proofs of violent derangement in the north, east and west corners of 

 Norfolk, and the almost unequivocal testimonies of disturbance on the coast 

 of Suffolk, there is sufficient reason to assume that the drainage of Norfolk, 

 Suffolk and Essex, has been induced by a violent strain acting from below, 

 and throwing the whole mass of the country into a position, by which 1200 

 square miles of Norfolk, and 220 of Suffolk, are drained by Yarmouth 

 Haven, and about 2000 square miles of the latter county, at the S.E. corner. 



Mr. Woodward, in his " Outline of the Geology of Norfolk" (pp. 1, 2), ob- 

 serves, that from the high ground between Lopham Ford and Brancaster, 

 where the Waveney and Ouse rise within a few feet of each other, and di- 

 verge, the rivers of Norfolk flow eastwards and westwards, according to the 



