FPMINSTEE AND EOMFOBD. 371 



beds had been regarded as relics of Boulder Clay. The superficial 

 disturbances might be connected with some form of ice-action, but 

 the evidence now brought forward showed that they had nothing 

 to do with the main Boulder Clay of East Anglia. 



Mr. H. W. MoNCKTON said that the manner in which this Boulder 

 Clay rested on London Clay without any intervening Glacial Gravel 

 did not strike hira as extraordinary ; in many localities round Ongar 

 he had found it difficult to determine where the London Clay ended 

 and the Boulder Clay began. 



The Thames Yalley at this part was bounded on the north by the 

 "Warley Hills, and on the south by Swanscombe, both more than 

 300 feet above O.D., and as the Boulder Clay described was 200 

 feet below that level it seemed probable that a valley of some size 

 existed when it was laid down. 



On the other hand, as the false-bedded sands and gravels above 

 the Boulder Clay seemed to be part of a terrace higher and older 

 than the beds with Corbicula Jiuminalis, &c., there seemed little 

 doubt that these latter are newer than the Great Chalky Boulder 

 Clav. 



Mr. Clement Eeid agreed with the Author in his main conclu- 

 sions, but ventured to suggest that mere height above the River 

 Thames was insufficient to prove the relative age of the deposits in 

 the Thames Yalley, and that the highest gravels were not necessarily 

 the oldest. 



Dr. Hicks said that there was abundant evidence to show that 

 the Brent Yalley at Einchley and Hendon had been scooped out 

 almost to its present level before the Middle Sands and Gravels, and 

 the Upper Boulder Clay, had been deposited in that area, and these 

 deposits can now be traced along the slopes almost to the level of 

 the present stream. His examination of the deposits in the Thames 

 Yalley had convinced him that the conditions there were almost 

 identical with those in the Brent Yalley. There the deposits 

 mantled the slopes in the same manner, and he thought it incorrect 

 to speak of them as terrace-gravels. He was of the opinion that 

 the Thames Yalley had in the main been scooped out in early 

 Glacial times, and that the deposits on the higher levels and on the 

 slopes had been accumulated during and at the close of the Glacial 

 period. There was, he thought, some evidence to show that there 

 had been a spread of Boulder Clay over the district anterior to the 

 so-called Middle Sands and Gravels, and it was not impossible that 

 the Boulder Clay referred to by Mr. Holmes might be a portion of 

 that deposit. 



Messrs. Lewis Abbott and Whitaker also spoke. 



The Author, in reply, said that though the Boulder Clay at Horn- 

 church was at a lower level than that north of Romford, yet there 

 must have been, here and there, much low ground at the time of its 

 deposition, as it was found at various levels in many different places. 

 And it was evident that the Boulder Clay at Hornchurch was older 

 than the gravel of the highest and oldest terrace of the Thames 

 Yalley deposits. He admitted that it did not necessarily happen 



