part -l] THE ELEPH AS- ANTIQUUM BED OF CL.VCTOX-ON-SEA. 611 



Tit ickness 

 Soil. in feet. 



1. Loam, or loamy gravel and sand, with interspersed flints, 



both rounded and angular ; white quartz-pebbles and 

 quartz-sandstone in boulders 6 to 7 



2. Freshwater [an error for ' estuarine '] shells in red sand 



[the scale of the section indicates 1£] 



3. ' Peat ' or ' lignite ' 10 to 12 



4. Marine and freshwater shells in red sand (one of the copies 



adds ' 8 feet above high -water mark ') [apparently 1] 



.">. 'Peat' or 'lignite', with subordinate and interrupted [ = 

 lenticular] beds of marine and freshwater shells. Incisor 

 of Water-Rat. [The Saffron Walden section depicts 

 two separate beds of ' lignite ', with one bed of red sand 



and shells between them] 7 to 9 



f>. Red sand, with marine and freshwater shells. (The J. Brown 

 correspondence, ' Essex Naturalist ' vol. xix, 1920, p. 139, 

 gives this bed as 3 feet above high-water mark) [apparently 1 ] 



7. [The elephant-bed.] Bones of the larger mammals, 

 generally found between the cliff and low-water mark, 

 freshwater shells, trunks of trees, nuts and seeds, etc. 



At the present time, the cliff-sections are much weathered and 

 overgrown ; but, occasionally, useful exposures may he seen when 

 ' cliff improvements ' of various kinds are being carried out. Thus 

 I have been able to confirm the correctness of the observations of 

 Osmond Fisher and Mr. W. H. Dalton that Bed 2 of J. Brown's 

 section is not freshwater but estuarine, with abundance of stunted 

 forms of marine mollusca. It is remarkable that Gorbicula 

 fluminalis occurs in this bed as a derivative, although it is not 

 known from the elephant-bed proper. I have not found estuarine 

 or marine shells below Bed 2 ; but I do not cast any doubt upon 

 the accuracy of previous observations. Adding mj own observa- 

 tions, and abbreviating those already given, we have, as shown in 

 figs. 1 & 2 (p. 610) :— 



a. Surface humus. 



/). Trail ; irregular loamy gravel : up to 6 feet. 



i. Estuarine series, consisting mainly of red sandy beds ; up to 6 feet. 

 1;. Hard clay (= ' Peat,' ' Lignite,' and ' Estuarine Peaty Shale '), occupying 

 the lower part of the cliff above the parade, with lenticular shelly beds, 

 and bed I -. up to 20 feet. 

 1. [Red sand and shells, a little above high- water mark : 1 foot, according to 

 the older observers. 1 ] 

 n-z. Elephant-bed, upper part obscured by the sea-wall. Below the sea-wall 

 the foreshore exhibits : — 

 (j. Hard blue clay, filling channels in r. 



(line of erosion) 

 r. Red and grey sandy loam. 



w. Fine, compact, green loam, with large concretions. 

 x. Blue sandy loam, with much wood, including the ' nut-bed '. 

 y. Dark sand and sandy loam, with subangular peat-stained flints, 

 passing almost into gravel. 

 yy. Lower part of y, cemented into a ferruginous and calcareous pan. 

 z. Basement- bed, consisting of septaria and flints in blue clay. 

 L.C. London Clay. 



1 This part of the section is not clear to me, so I have drawn no boundary 

 between k and n in the section. At p in fig. 2 there was rather mixed 

 materia), apparently the remains of a cliff landslip. 



