334 MK. W. WHITAKER ON A DEEP CHANNEL OF 



mostly of loam and sand, more or less bedded, with clay (sometimes 

 apparently a Boulder-clay, full of pieces of chalk) and gravel. 



It will be convenient to take the localities in order from south to 

 north, beginning at the head of the valley of the Cam, in the higher 

 part of which they all are (with a range of little more than six 

 miles), and working downward. 



Quendon and Rickling. 



Although the evidence here is of a far less striking character 

 than at the places to the north, and, indeed, might be passed over 

 did it stand alone, yet it may be well to note what has been 

 proved by well-sections, namely, that there is a greater thickness 

 than would have been expected of those beds of Glacial Drift that 

 crop out from beneath the great sheet of Boulder-clay, the sandy 

 and gravelly beds that Mr. S. Y. Wood called Middle Glacial. 



Thus, near Brick Kiln Cottages, K.W. of Eickling Green, just 

 above the 300-feet contour, the Chalk seems to have been reached 

 at a depth of about 83 feet, whilst it comes to the surface some 

 550 feet N.N.W. at about the same level. Again, in a well at the 

 south-western end of the Green, the depth to the Chalk is 60 feet, 

 at a level perhaps a few feet higher. 



At the public well, by the side of the highroad opposite Quendon 

 Farm, and just below the 300-feet contour, a depth of 79^ feet did 

 not reach the Chalk. An old well at " The YicAvs" near by, but 

 rather higher, is 100 feet deep, and about 3 feet in Chalk. On the 

 eastern side of Quendon Hall Lane, some way below the 300-feet 

 contour, and some 400 feet from the highroad, the Chalk was 

 reached at the depth of only 18 feet ; but at Quendon Hall, further 

 north, the well ends in sand at 90 feet, the level of the ground 

 being about 300 feet. 



On the east of Quendon the Chalk crops out, rising, at one part 

 of the western slope of the valley, to about the 300-feet contour. 



Newport, 



It is here that we have the greatest thickness of Drift hitherto 

 recorded, not only in Essex, but in the South-east of England, and 

 even there its base has not been reached. 



At the southern end of the village, a well at Mr. Shirley's 

 Malting, on the marsh just east of the stream, reached the Chalk 

 at the depth of 75 feet. On the eastern border of the narrow 

 marsh the Chalk seems to crop out at a distance of about 150 feet, 

 so that the westerly underground slope of the Chalk-surface is not 

 less than 1 in 2. 



The most interesting well, of all that have to be referred to, is at 

 the other end of the village, and was made for the Grammar 

 School, on the site of the Castle, a little above the 200-feet contour 

 on the north of the Wicken Water. This boring begins just below 

 the boundary of the great sheet of Boulder-clay, and therefore we 

 have here to deal only with beds beneath that division of the 



