74 
ponderous envelope of ice, ■which, jiassing slo'wly downwards 
towards the sea, degraded from the rocks over which it passed 
gieat quantities of material, dej^ositing it eventually as an immense 
inoiaine ; and part of this moraine we have here in the chalky 
Boulder Clay, 
The sand underlying the chalky clay is a marine deposit, and 
lepresents a stage in the Glacial period during which somewliat 
milder conditions seemed to have prevailed, but the loAver bed 
of clay points again to a climate of great severity. In the cliff 
section of North Norfolk at Cromer and elsewhere, these lower 
beds are contorted in a very remarkable wa}'’, and these contortions 
are noAV generally held to be due to the grounding of icebergs 
and floes. How great is the difference betAveen the present climate 
of England, bad as it has recently been, and that of the distant 
time we are considering ! What vast changes must have been 
at work to produce the Glacial cold, and Avhat complicated changes 
tco must have resulted from such a Auxriation of climate ! 
AVhether this excessive cold Avas produced by astronomical 
causes, such as the j>recession of the Equinoxes, by Avhich the 
eai th s jjrescnt position in Avinter at the perihelion, or nearest 
point of her orbit to the sun, aa'us changed to aphelion, by Avhich 
she woidd have been in Avintcr many millions of miles further 
from the source of heat than she noAV is ; by geographical causes, 
such as the diversion of ocean currents, like the Gulf Stream ; 
or by the sun’s heat varying in the course of long ages; there 
is no question among geologists but that the period is, as compared 
Avith that to Avhich human records reach, exceedingly remote, but 
the point to which I desire to call your attention is, that of this 
long period Ave have hei’e no records Avhatevor. 
The next underlying bed presents ns Avith a strange contrast 
betAveen the present and the former mammalian inhabitants of 
East Anglia. Unfortunately the discoveries of science have been 
during recent years so positively sensational that our minds are noAv 
accustomed to regard Avith a feeling akin to indifference its most 
startling assertions ; but it must have been very different Avhen 
these geological discoveries were first announced. ]\lr. Colman 
has here the teeth of an immense elephant taken froni the spot, 
and the collection of the fossil remains in the NorAvich Museum 
of the Elephant, Bliinoceros, Hippopotamus, Tiger, Bear, and other 
