716 ME. F. W. HARMER ON THE CRAG OF ESSEX. [NOV. I9OO, 



that the base of the Crag, instead of being water-logged and stained, 

 as at the other pit, is as dry as powder and quite white, having been 

 unaffected by the infiltration whicb has given to the part above 

 it the usual rusty hue of the Red Crag. 1 From pit No. 4 I obtained 

 several species which I did not notice at No. 3, namely : Mactra 

 obtruncata (very common), Purpura lapillus var. intermedia, with 

 one adult and two or three young specimens of Neptunea antiqua 

 (dextral), and of its northern variety carinata. These are all 

 characteristic of the still newer deposit at Little Oakley to be 

 described farther on (p. 739). While Neptunea contraria is most 

 abundant at Beaumont, the dextral form, iV. antiqua, is very rare at 

 pit No. 3. With the help of a labourer, about 7 or 8 tons of Crag 

 were sifted there, but only one perfect specimen and one small 

 fragment of the latter species were met with. 2 



Fig. 4. — Section of Waltonian Crag near Beaumont Hall. 

 E.N.E. W.S.W. 



The fossils have been removed from the upper portion of the 

 Beaumont section by infiltration, but the carbonate of lime so 

 derived has been redeposited on the surface of the unaltered Crag, 

 and along the edges of pipes which are filled with material similar 

 to that of the decalcified portion. The Crag is partly false-bedded, 

 with an east-north-easterly dip, but the inclination of no part of the 

 bedding is so great as that of the beach-like Crag at Walton and 

 elsewhere. The base of the deposit where it rests upon the London 

 Clay is black (see Mr. Lomas's Report, p. 738). Although the Crag 

 outlier caps the summit of a hill, whence the ground slopes rapidly 

 towards Thorpe, water stands constantly at the bottom of the pit, 

 even during the summer, showing that the surface of the underlying- 

 London Clay is more or less cup-shaped. 



Pursuing my investigations in a northerly direction, I found at 



1 This tends, I think, to show that the staining of the Red Crag has taken 

 place, in some cases at least, in comparatively recent times. 



2 Eight-handed specimens are quite unknown to the farm-labourers at Beau- 

 mont. This is not only, a matter of common observation among them, but they 

 have formulated a theory to account for it : ' Before the Flood, everything was 

 left-handed.' 





