748 ME. E. W. HAEMEE ON THE [Nov. 1 896, 



41. On the Pliocene Deposits of Holland and tlieir Relation to the 

 English and Belgian Ceags, with a Suggestion for the 

 Establishment of a New Zone, ' Amstelien,' and some Remaeks 

 on the Gteogeaphical Conditions of the Pliocene Epoch in 

 Noetheen Etteope. By E. W. Haemee, Esq., E.G.S. (Read 

 May 27th, 1896.) 



[Plates XXXIY. & XXXV.— Maps.] 



I. Inteodtjction. 



While engaged in the study of the conditions under which the 

 English Crag-beds were deposited, I was fortunate enough to receive 

 from Dr. J. Lorie, of Utrecht, two important papers on the strata 

 met with in some deep borings in different parts of Holland. 1 These 

 borings reveal the remarkable fact that the Newer Pliocene beds 

 which underlie that country not only attain the great thickness of 

 nearly 500 feet, but have been depressed at one point more than 

 1000 feet below their original position. The enquiry suggested 

 itself whether this subsidence was connected with the series of earth- 

 movements by which the Older Pliocene deposits of the South of 

 England, of the North-east of France, and of Belgium have been 

 raised to a height of between 500 and 600 feet above the level of 

 the sea, how far the influence of these disturbances could be traced 

 in East Anglia, and in what manner the deposition of the Crag- 

 deposits was affected by them. 



The facts I have now to submit show that these movements of 

 upheaval and subsidence have this in common, that they were not 

 confined to one period, but went on, though not continuously, from 

 the Pliocene until late in the Pleistocene epoch. The central 

 portion of the area has not been affected by them to any large 

 extent, and seems to have formed the pivot of the disturbance, 

 while depression has increased progressively in a northerly direction, 

 and elevation has been greatest in the south. Eor the most part, 

 each of these movements has operated in the direction which it first 

 assumed, with a decided interruption, however, at the end of the 

 Pliocene period, and it will be seen by the section (fig. 4, p. 761) 

 that the total rise of the bed of the Pliocene sea, on the one hand, 

 corresponds, though not exactly, with the greatest depth to which it 

 has sunk on the other. The maximum disturbance, so far as the 

 evidence goes, seems to have been along a line running S.W., and 

 N.E. from the Straits of Dover to the coast of Holland. The East 

 Anglian area has been affected, though not to so great an extent, 

 and I think it will be seen that these movements have had an 

 important influence on the deposition and distribution of the English 

 Crag-beds. 



1 'Contributions a la Geologie des Pays-Bas, No. 1/ extr. des Archives 

 du Musee Tevler, ser. ii. vol. ii. (1885) Haarlem ; do. No. 4, Bull. Soc. Beige 

 Geol. vol. iii. 



