THE 
GEOLOGICAL MAGAZINE. 
NEW SERIES. DECADE II. VOL. IV. 
No. IX.— SEPTEMBER, 1877. 
AETICLES. 
I. —The Kessingland Freshwater Bed and Weybourne Sand. 
By S. Y. Wood, Jun., F.G.S., and F. W. Harmer, F.G.S. 
T WO papers in the July Number of this Magazine, one by Mr. J. 
H. Blake, and tbe other by Mr. C. Reid, impugn certain repre- 
sentations given by us of beds on tbe Norfolk and Suffolk coasts, and 
demand from us some remark. 
As the paper of Mr. Blake, “On tbe Kessingland Cliff Section,” 
does not introduce any new fact, eitber as to tbe section itself, or in 
contradiction or qualification of tbe evidence which was offered in 
onr joint paper in tbe Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society 
for February, 1S77, or in tbe separate paper by one of us in tbe 
same Journal, we bave onlv to say tbat we bave never advanced, 
nor do we entertain, any decided opinion tbat the freshwater beds 
of the section are of interglacial age ; and tbat we only suggested 
the possibility of such a thing as a matter for consideration in con- 
nexion with other interglacial features described by us. 
So far as we can see, Mr. Blake’s objections amount to this, that 
freshwater beds with roots, overlain by tbe Lower Glacial beds, 
occur in Corton cliff, and in places on the Cromer coast ; and tbat, 
tberefore, they are necessarily of the same age as tbose of Kessing- 
land, wbicb are not so overlain. On this point we beg to refer your 
readers to tbe observations made by us in tbe “ Introduction to the 
Supplement to tbe Crag Mollusca ” (p. xv), as to tbe improbability 
of any denudation baving so evenly removed tbe Lower Glacial 
beds (wbicb must bave once covered this district, since they occur in 
considerable tbickness in tbe neighbourhood) witliout leavinga trace 
of them, and yet have spared tbe root-indented surface of tbe un- 
stratified bed of clay, throughout tbe wbole lengtb of tbe section, 
which exteuds for more than a rnile. 
Tbe interglacial denudation, with wbicb we suggested in our 
joint paper the bed in question might be connected, rests, however, 
on far clearer evidence ; and the very case which Mr. Blake would 
assume in explanation of tbe preglacial age of tbese freshwater 
deposits, viz. tbe removal of tbe Lower Glacial beds before tbe 
deposition of tbe Middle Glacial, involves tbe admission of such 
denudation. 
Mr. Blake says that tbe section given in tbe separate paper by one 
of us, as well as tbe description, is inaccurate ; but be does not 
specify in what respect ; nor does be say anything about tbe series 
of beds wbicb Mr. Gunn shows in bis section as intervening between 
DECADE II. — YOL. IV. — NO. IX. 25 
