An Excursion to the Crag District. 37 



our boatman got us over this dilemma. In the bottom of the 

 " punt " he had three strips of board, and by placing these 

 cautiously one beyond the other, and supporting each of us with 

 an oar, he passed us one by one along this narrow gangway 

 to terra fir ma, and so, after a muddy walk on stepping-stones, 

 we reached the sea-wall en route for Harwich. There formerly 

 existed a cliff capped with Crag here, but it has been long- 

 since washed away.* Harwich and Dovercourt cliffs are now 

 both well protected against further encroachments of the sea 

 by an excellent stone breakwater, two miles in length, which 

 affords a fine walk to visitors, who come yearly in increasing 

 numbers to enjoy this rising Spa. 



We came into Harwich with good appetites, after satisfying 

 which we crossed the Orwell in a sailing boat, and landed at 

 Walton Ferry, intending to push on, through Felixstow and 

 Alderton, to Kamsholt that same night if possible. We walked 

 over some fields which terminate the county of Suffolk, upon the 

 extreme southern point of which Landguard Fort is situated, 

 and came once more upon the beach a mile south of Felixstow. 

 Here the cliffs again rise up to a good height, with Crag 

 and London clay, but we did not succeed in procuring any 

 fossils. 



At Felixstow I found a letter from my friend, Mr. Col- 

 chester, of Grundisburgh Hall, one of the largest exporters of 

 coprolite from this county, inviting us to inspect the Crag pits 

 on his estate at Sutton, of which we had heard such in- 

 teresting accounts from Mr. Searles Wood. We were 

 constantly reminded of our proximity to the Crag by ob- 

 serving the private roads gravelled with it, and we picked 

 up several entire shells of Litbrina and Murex as we walked 

 along. 



Near Bawdsey Ferry we noticed in front of the cottage- 

 doors small heaps of the dark-brown, shining, water- 

 worn pebbles called " coprolites," which ten years ago 

 created an extensive trade here, and the preparation of 

 which for artificial manure gave employment to numbers of 

 peasantry. 



The superior yieldf of the coprolitic deposits of the Cam- 

 bridgeshire Greensand, which give a more abundant supply 



* The men employed by the Harbour Commissioners in "didling," or 

 dredging up stones, etc., in the entrance to the Orwell and Stour rivers, off 

 Harwich, collect vast numbers of Septaria (huge concretions washed out of the 

 London clay, which are used in the manufacture of "Roman cement "), nearly 

 every one of which contains some organic body in its centre, around which the 

 mass seems to have formed. Those found at Harwich frequently contain the 

 remains of fossil turtles. 



f Mr. Colchester informs me that himself and another proprietor at Royston 

 raise no less than 300 tons of this fossil, manure daily, or about 93,300 tons per 

 annum. 



