772 MR. F. W. HAKMER ON THE [Nov. 1 896,, 



pointed out by Sir J. Prestwich, 1 much southern drift. These 

 occur at "Weybourn on the Norfolk coast, at Wroxham and Belaugh 

 in the Bure Valley, and at Crostwick and elsewhere near Norwich. 

 In these appears for the first time, and, as before stated, in great 

 abundance, Tellina balthica, a shell unknown from any older horizon 

 of the English Pliocene. 2 They were originally described by 

 Mr. Wood and myself as the Bure Valley Beds, and, with some 

 unfossiliferous gravels which have a considerable development in 

 Norfolk and Suffolk, are shown in our map of the Crag district 3 as 

 the base of the Lower Glacial formation. Sir J. Prestwich after- 

 wards adopted for them the name of ' Westleton Shingle,' including 

 the deposits at Belaugh and other places in the Bure Valley, but 

 excluding that of Weybourn, which he referred to the Norwich 

 Crag. I know of no sufficient reason, however, for such a separation. 



The Bure Valley and Weybourn Beds are evidently Pliocene 

 rather than Pleistocene, 4 as pointed out by Messrs. Woodward 5 and 

 Beid, 6 but I think it possible that some of the pebbly gravels asso- 

 ciated with them by Mr. Wood and myself may be of Pleistocene 

 age. Considerable difference of opinion exists between the officers 

 of H.M. Geological Survey on this subject. Mr. H. B. Woodward 

 believes that the gravels of Westleton, Henham, Halesworth, and 

 Haddiscoe in the north of Suffolk are glacial, while he regards 

 those of Loddon and Heckingham in the south of Norfolk as of 

 the age of the Crag. 7 Mr. Whitaker does not agree with this view 

 of the case, 8 and my own experience when mapping the district 

 leads me to doubt whether any such division can be traced. 



The Bure Valley Beds seem to me to indicate that after the de- 

 position of the Chillesford Clay the sea re-invaded the north-eastern 

 portion of Norfolk and probably of Suffolk, forming a bay into 

 which the Rhine still continued to discharge. Mr. Reid has shown y 

 however, that during the later part of the period represented by the 

 most recent of the Pliocene beds on the Cromer coast, an Arctic 

 climate prevailed, and probably no great interval of time separated 

 them from the Pleistocene era. During the accumulation of these 

 Cromer Beds, as I think the Pliocene deposits newer than the 

 Weybourn Crag might conveniently be called, the sea retired from 

 East Anglia, but it seems to have returned before the deposition of 

 the Lower Glacial Clays, and it may then have re-occupied under 



1 Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. xxvii. (1871) p. 477. 



2 For many years some specimens of Tellina balthica have been exhibited 

 in the Natural History Museum at South Kensington, labelled 'Postwick,' a 

 Norwich Crag locality, and Sir J. Prestwich gives this species, with a query, 

 from the same place. In both cases Crostwick should be substituted for 

 Postwick. See Trans. Norf. & Norw. Naturalists' Society, vol. ii. p. 377. 



3 Suppl. Crag Moll. vol. iii., Palseont. Soc. 1872. 



4 Messrs Gunn and Savin discovered the Tellina balthica-Crag beneath the 

 freshwater bed at Runton in 1876, Proc. Norw. Geol. Soc. vol. i. p. 50. 



5 * Geology of England and Wales,' 1876, p. 281. 



6 ' Pliocene Deposits of Britain,' Mem. Geol. Surv. 1890, p. 222. 



7 Mem. Geol. Surv. Norwich, 1881, p. 85. Mr. Woodward's views on the 

 Bure Valley Beds are further given in Geol. Mag. 1882, p. 452. 



8 Mem. Geol. Surv. Southwold, 1887, pp. 25 & 32. 



