1867.] MAW CONSOLIDATED BLOCKS. Ill 



The well-section, 111 feet deep, included : — 



feet. 



1. Loamy gravel on surface 4 



2. Boulder-clay, containing fragments of chalk, flints, chalk-fossils, and 



fragments of septaria 53 



3. Drift sands and gravels containing much chalk-detritus, and varying 



in character 43 



4. Chalk _n_ 



111 



The month of the well is, as nearly as I could ascertain, 200 feet 

 above the sea-level, and the surface of chalk, near its bottom, just 

 100 feet above the sea. This corresponds, within a very few feet, 

 with the level of the chalk at its out-crop at various points in the 

 neighbourhood, as at Chopping's Hill Parm, the field adjoining 

 Hemingstone Church, the Clayton Chalk-pit, &c. The thickness 

 of the sand- and gravel-drift also appears to be tolerably uniform ; 

 and as the general flat-topped level of the country at Crowfield- 

 Street is maintained for many miles, with but very trifling variations, 

 the section may be taken as typical of a large district in the south- 

 east of Suffolk. 



In descending from this flat plateau into one of the tributary 

 valleys of the river Gipping, the out-crop of all the beds is exposed ; 

 and at the gravel-pit adjacent to the Chopping's Hill farm-house, 

 nearly the whole thickness of the Drift is exhibited resting on the 

 chalk. 



The consolidated masses occur at a tolerably uniform level, at 

 about 18 feet below the Boulder-clay, and 25 feet above the Chalk. 

 A few are to be seen exposed in situ in the gravel-pit, also in the 

 garden at the back of Chopping's Hill farm-house, in the lane lead- 

 ing up thence to Crowfield- Street, and in another small gravel-pit in 

 a field to the south-east of the farm-house. A few may be seen lying 

 about on the surface, also in the bed of a small streamlet between 

 the Crowfield- Street Lane and the farm-yard. A considerable quan- 

 tity of the stone has been employed in building at Chopping's Hill 

 Farm: indeed, from the absence of any other stone in the district, these 

 consolidated blocks are eagerly sought after for building-purposes, and 

 broken up as soon as exposed ; this will account for the sraall number 

 to be seen on the surface compared with their frequency of occurrence 

 in the Drift. This band of consolidated masses appears to be rather 

 general throughout the Drift of the district, as in an exposure of the 

 sand- and gravel-beds in the railway- cuttings between Westerfield and 

 Bealings station, seven or eight miles to the south-east, similar masses 

 of large size occur, though at a somewhat lower level than those near 

 Coddenham. I should also mention the occurrence, on the surface of 

 the Eed Crag at Sutton, near Woodbridge, of a mass of very hard 

 saccharoid sandstone exactly resembling in texture and appearance 

 the " greywethers " of Wiltshire. It does not appear to be an 

 erratic boulder, as there are no other transported materials in the 

 neighbourhood ; and as it overlies the Crag, it seems probable that it 

 is not older than the Coddenham drift. 



The blocks at Chopping's Hill Farm vary in size, and are generally 



k2 



