158 Thos. Belt — The Glacial Period in Norfolk. 
bed liad become partly charged with marine remains, and tbat thus 
the broken shells were introduced tbat are found in some of tke 
Norfolk drift. 
1t will be readily seen tbat this is not a theory speeially proposed 
to account for the pbenomena presented in the Norfolk and Suffolk 
beds, but rather an attempt to show that they are naturally explained 
by that of the German Ocean glacier, wliieh rests upon other and 
very strong evidence. I have, during the last twelve months, dis- 
cussed this question with several geologists acquainted with the 
district ; and though I cannot say that I have made any converts, I 
have only met with general objections, such as the unwillingness to 
admit that there was ever such an accumulation of ice as would fill 
the bed of the German Ocean ; this feeling seeming to over-ride 
every evidence of its existence. It will, however, strike many 
minds, that in a theory so comprebensive as that which I have pro- 
posed to account for the varied phenomena of the Glacial period, 
there ouglit, if it is not the true one, to be many facts that cannot be 
explained by it. I am unable, either by my own observation or by 
studying the works of others, to find any ; and I have thought that 
by presenting clearly my theory in reference to one restricted area, 
and to one portion only of the Glacial period, I should ofier a fair 
opportunity to those who differ from me to bring forward the facts 
on which they rely. I have therefore confined these remarks to the 
question of the formation of the Quaternary beds of Norfolk and 
Suffolk, up to and including that of the Cromer tili, but have not 
here dealt with the larger subjects of the Boulder-clays and Middle 
Glacial sands and gravels, of which, however, I have treated 
elsewhere. 
Briefly, my conclusions respecting the beds in question are as 
follows : — 
1. The Cromer forest grew before the German Ocean had been 
blocked up to the north by ice. 
2. The fluvio-mariue beds, lying above the forest bed and the 
pebbly sands at the base of the laminated brick-earths, were formed 
when the northern end of the German Ocean was partly obstructed, 
so that the water was slightly freshened and a little raised above the 
present level of the sea. 
3. The laminated brick-earths were deposited when the ice com- 
pletely blocked up the German Ocean to the north, causing the 
formation of a lake that drained to the south-west and gradually cut 
through the Straits of Dover. The water of this lake was fresh or 
but slightly braclcish. 
4. The Straits of Dover were cut through, the lake lowered, and 
the brick-earths denuded, whilst the ice was advancing southward 
along the bed of the German Ocean. 
5. The ice reached the coast of Norfolk, and crumpled up and 
shifted the brick-earths that it came in contact with, and in some 
cases, as on the north coast of Norfolk, where its power was greater, 
pushed them up and deposited tili beneath them, as it did also with 
great masses of Chalk-marl and Kimmeridge-clay. 
