Clement Reid — Pliocene Beds near Cromer. 
301 
show clearly tlie changes which occur in these beds I will describe 
each one separately, commencing at the base. 1 
Weyboern Beds and Forest Bed. 
Beds of sand with nuraerous seams of clay and an abundance of 
shells are shown resting immediately on the Chalk at Weybourn. 
These constitute the well-known “ Weybourn Sands ” with which 
Messrs. Wood and Harmer correlate the upper shell-bed of Belaugh, 
Wroxham, and other places in the Bure Valley. It will be desirable 
to retain the name “ Weybourn Beds,” as, besides being already 
known, tliey have the advantage at Weybourn of not occurring, as 
is the case in the Bure Valley, in proximity to any other marine and 
shell-bearing sands. The shell-beds at Weybourn vary in number, 
but careful collecting from each separately has convinced me that 
they all belong to one palaeontological division. As these beds are 
traced towards Cromer, the upper portion becomes more and more 
interstratified with clay, which gradually takes the well-laminated 
character which is so conspicuous near Mundesley. 
At Bunton, resting directly on the Chalk, there is a bed of sand 
and near ly unworn flints full of double valves of Mya arenaria and 
Tellina obliqua ; this is succeeded by two or three feet of marine crag, 
the upper part of which is mixed with land and fresh-water shells, 
and occasionally contains large bones. From this bed I obtained the 
scapula of an elephant now in the Museum of Practical Geology. 
Above this “ Elephant-bed ” is the “ Forest-bed,” consisting of a 
large quantity of drift wood, one tree trunk which I measured being 
upwards of 18ft. in length. This locality has yielded no leaves or 
seeds, and all the wood is much worn : a few marine shells occur 
with the wood. The Forest-bed passes up into laminated clays, 
seams of gravel cemented with iron locally known as “pan,” 2 and 
sands with marine fossils. The shells correspond with those in the 
lower bed, but the list, owing principally to the fewer and smaller 
exposures, is not yet so large. From Bunton the Forest-bed thickens 
to the S.E., and as it increases the sands are replaced by laminated 
clays, and marine shells become scarcer, although they are still to be 
found at Mundesley and Bacton. The underlying shelly crag can 
be traced as far as Sidestrand, beyond which place the foreshore is 
nearly always hidden by sand. 
The usual character of the Forest-bed is well exhibited on the 
foreshore opposite the Cromer lighthouse, wliere it consists of 
masses of drifted peat, wood, and stools of trees imbedded in 
greenish sand, with layers of clay pebbles. The -well-known 
Mammalian remains occur in the sandy and gravelly beds, and, 
although not worn, they are commonly broken. 
I have examined most of the localities where the “ Forest-bed ” 
has been seen as far eastward as Bacton, and have pulled up every 
tree-stump that I could discover on the foreshore. The roots always 
1 Detailed descriptions of the sections and complete lists of fossils will be given in 
the Survey publications. 
3 Pan occurs at various horizons. 
