
Parr LY. Secr. iv.§ 2.) PLIOCENE. 875 
great range of cliffs of glacial deposits on the north-east coast of Norfolk. 
These beds are of estuarine and marine origin, and include layers of peat 
and traces of a former land-surface which is marked by what has been 
termed the ‘‘rootlet bed.” The designation “ forest-bed,” however, is 
unfortunately chosen, for the tree-stumps which suggested it appear to 
be in all cases drifted specimens. According to the recent zesearches of 
Mr. C. Reid of the Geological Survey, there is at the base a band of 
dark carbonaceous silt and peat with seeds, moss, &c. (lower fresh- 
water bed). This is surmounted by the “Forest bed” properly so 
called—a band of dark silt, clay, or loam, with numerous seeds, cones, 
stumps, and fragments of drift-wood, blocks of peat, bones of mammals, 
&c. Next comes another peaty layer (upper fresh-water bed), over which 
le fine sands with clay and flint pebbles, containing Leda myalis, and other 
marine mollusca with united valves. Among the organic contents of the 
Forest-bed group are cones of Scotch fir and spruce, leaves of the white 

Fig. 422.—PLiocenr G-ASTEROPODS. 
a, Sealaria groenlandica (Chemn.); b, Voluta Lamberti (Sow.) (4); ¢, Trophon antiquum 
(Miill.) (3). 
water-lily, yellow pond-lily, hornwort, blackthorn, bog-bean, oak, and 
_ hazel; species of marine, fresh-water, and land-shells (Trophon antiquum, 
Nucula Cobboldiz, Tellina, Pisidium amnicum, Unio pictorum, Paludina vivi- 
para, Planorbis fontanus, Linnea stagnalis, Succinea putris, Helia arbustorum, 
&e.), of which Corbicula fluminalis and Belgrandia marginata no longer 
live in England, fifty species of mammals, two birds, two reptiles, four 
amphibians, and seventeen birds.' 
1 The mammals of the forest-beds afford an interesting giimpse of the fauna that 
preceded the advent of the Ice Age in central Europe and the adjoining seas. Accord- 
ing to Mr. E. T. Newton's researches, the following is the list of recognized species: 
Carnivora—Canis lupus? C. vulpes? Machatrodus sp., Felide (? genus), Martes sylva- 
tica, Gulo luscus, Ursus speleus, U. ferow fossilis? Trichechus Hualeyi, Phoca sp.; 
Ungulata—Equus caballus fossilis, H. Stenonis, Rhinoceros etruscus, Rh. megarhinus ? 
Hippopotamus major, Sus scrofa, Bos primigenius? Caprovis Savinit, Cervus bovides, 
C. capreolus, C. carnutorum? C. Dawkinsi, C. elaphus? C. etueriarum, C. Fitchii, C. 
Gunnii, C. latifrons, C. megaceros ? C. polignacus, C. Sedqwickii, C. verticornis ; Rodentia 
-—Trogontherium Cuvieri, Castor Europeus, Arvicola amphibius, A. intermedius, A. 
arvalis, A. glareolus, Sciurus vulgaris?. Mus sylwaticus; Insectivora—Talpa Europea, 
Sorex vulgaris, S. pygmxus, Myogale moschata ; Proboscidea—Elephas antiquus, E. meri- 
dionalis, E. primigenius ; Cetacea—Balenoptera ? Monodon monoceros, Delphinus delphis, 
Delphinus, sp. (Geol. Mag. 1880-82). 
On the subject of the Forest-bed group see Lyell, Phil. Mag. 3rd ser. xvi. (1840), 
