Yol.  49.]  ANNIVERSARY  ADDRESS  OE  THE  PRESIDENT.  11$ 
that  disunited  or  primordial  cells  of  Foraminifera  form  a  very  large 
part  of  the  mass,  shell-fragments  are  few,  and  the  finer  amorphous 
material  appears  to  be  made  up  entirely  of  calcareous  particles.  In 
Lincolnshire  mineral-fragments,  probably  derived  from  the  undei- 
lying  Yeocomian  sands,  are  found  in  the  lower  part  of  the  Fed  Chalk, 
while  in  Yorkshire  these  fragments  are  much  coarser ;  in  fact,  the 
rock  is  almost  conglomeratic  in  places,  sometimes  even  when  resting 
on  Jurassic  clays.  This  character  becomes  most  marked  towards  the 
elevated  outcrop  near  the  north-western  corner  of  the  Y  olds,  where 
coarse  shell-fragments,  large  Foraminifera,  detached  Sponge-spicules, 
and  glauconitic  grains  of  large  size  are  observed  to  be  abundant. 
With  the  thickening  of  the  beds  towards  Speeton  a  change  comes 
over  the  character  of  the  deposit ;  shelly  fragments  of  small  size  are 
abundant  and  Foraminifera!  tests  common,  but  there  is  a  laige 
quantity  of  fine  inorganic  material,  and  it  is  only  in  the  upper 
portion  that  the  deposit  becomes  more  purely  calcareous. 
It  may  be  as  well  to  state  here  that  the  topmost  beds  of  the 
Speeton  Clay,  on  which  the  Fed  Chalk  reposes,  have  been  shown  by 
Mr.  Lamplugh  to  contain  a  fauna  very  closely  allied  to  that  of  the 
Fed  Chalk.  He  considers  that  these  beds  are  too  thick  to  be 
explained  as  the  result  of  the  working  up  of  the  underlying  clays 
into  the  base  of  the  Fed  Chalk,  as  supposed  by  Mr.  Mill.  It  is  not 
a  little  curious  to  note  how  the  Gault  once  more,  if  only  for  a  few 
feet,  assumes  an  argillaceous  aspect.  Mr.  Lamplugh  suggests 
that  in  these  beds  we  have  probably  a  representative  of  the 
Lower  Gault,  while  the  Fed  Chalk  itself  may  represent  the  upper 
division  of  the  formation — an  idea  which,  no  doubt,  he  shares  with 
other  geologists.  How  far  he  is  correct  in  correlating  this  horizon, 
designated  by  him  as  the  Belemnites  minimus- marls,  with  the 
Lincolnshire  Carstone,1  is  a  point  which  I  should  not  venture  to 
discuss  on  the  present  occasion.  Clearly,  however,  he  is  of  opinion 
that  at  Speeton  the  Upper  Cretaceous  succeeds  the  Lower  without 
any  break  of  importance. 
Before  attempting  to  deal  with  Lower  Cretaceous  Geology, 
we  may  pause  for  a  moment  to  consider  what  may  have  been 
the  physical  history  of  part  of  the  area  covered  by  the  Fed  Chalk. 
Starting  from  Hunstanton,  we  have  seen  that  the  minimum  of 
deposition  occurs  at  two  points,  viz.  at  Hunstanton  itself  and  at 
the  north-western  corner  of  the  Yorkshire  Y  olds,  the  subdivisions  of 
the  Lower  Chalk  being  proportionally  affected.  One  of  the  questions 
1  Rep.  Brit.  Assoc.  (Leeds  Meeting),  1890,  p.  808. 
