ON THE LIGNITE OF THE ENVIRONS OF BACTON. 13 
malian remains^ occur. Tlie principal elytra are of the tribe 
Donacia. When first removed from the earth they are very bril- 
liant^ but the colours soon fade upon exposure to the air. 
The mammalian remains include bones and teeth of the deer, 
horse_, ox and Arvicola. 
Whilst at Bacton this bed is formed of black peaty earth, at 
Ostend it is mixed with a greenish sand. Mr. Lyell speaks of 
that at Happisburgh as " laminated blue clay, about one foot 
and a half in thickness, part of the clay being bituminous, and 
inclosing compressed branches and leaves of trees." Mr. R. C. 
Taylor, in his " Geology of Eastern Norfolk," observes of the 
deposit generally, it consists of forest peat, containing fir- 
cones and fragments of bones, in other parts, of woody clay ; and 
elsewhere, of large stems of trees, standing thickly together, the 
stems appearing to have been broken otF about eighteen inches 
from the base. They are evidently rooted in the clay or sandy 
bed, in which they originally grew, and their stem, branches and 
leaves lie around them, flattened by the pressure of from thirty 
to three hundred feet of diluvial deposits. It is not possible to 
say how far inland this subterranean forest extends ; but that 
it is not a mere external belt is obvious, from the constant expo- 
sure and removal of new portions at the base of the €115*5." 
The Rev. James Layton, cited by Mr. Fairholme in his geo- 
logy, states in a letter, " The line of crushed wood, leaves, grass, 
&c. frequently forming a bed of peat, extends just above low 
water mark. About this stratum, numerous remains of mam- 
malia are found, the horns and bones of at least four kinds of 
deer, the ox, horse, hippopotamus, rhinoceros and elephant. 
These fossils are found at Happisburgh and its neighbourhood, 
on the denuded clay-shore : at Mundesley they are found in the 
cliff." 
The forest appears to extend far inland, for I have been cre- 
dibly informed, that when the river Ant (North Walsham canal) 
was cut, a bed of peat was met with, precisely the same as that 
