NODULE BEDS. 
7 
In 1845 Prof. Henslow* * * § again noticed the occurrence of 
phosphatic nodules in the Crag, and quoted Mr. Brown of 
Stanway as having analysed them and found the same amount 
of phosphate of lime as in similar nodules from the London 
Clay. This resemblance of composition, and the occurrence of 
small crabs and fish like those in the London Clay, led Mr. Brown 
to the conclusion that the pebbles in the Crag were derived from 
that series. Prof. Henslow also spoke of an attempt having been 
made to test the economic value of the deposit. 
In 1846 Sir R. Owenf described the Mammalian fossils of 
the Red Crag, and concluded that the Cetacean ear-bones and 
teeth had been derived from Eocene beds, from the mistaken idea 
that a Cetotolite had been found in the London Clay, it being 
recorded as ‘‘ from Harwich Cliff."^ 
Prof. Henslow, recurring to the subject of his paper of 1845, 
two years later,J thought that various bones had been derived from 
the Loudon Clay, as true Crag fossils in his opinion differed from 
these older fossils in not being mineralized. He stated that the 
Cetacean remains described by Sir R. Owen must be classed with 
the detrital materials from the London Clay. 
In 1849§ Buckland said that none of the phosphatic nodules 
from the Crag were true coprolites. He also spoke of the con¬ 
ditions under which the phosphatic deposits might have been 
formed in the London Clay from the decomposition of organic 
matter, but suggested also that many of the nodules in the Crag 
might have absorbed a larger amount of phosphorus since they were 
washed out of their matrix in the London Clay. 
In 1851 Dr. W. B. Clarke,|| of Ipswieh, gave a further account 
of the Nodule Bed and its contents, and T. J. Herapath^f pub¬ 
lished a valuable series of analyses of the fossil bones and of the 
phosphatic nodules, though subsequent analyses by other chemists 
show that the average amount of phosphates is somewhat less 
and the silica much greater. In 1854 a suggestion was made by 
Prof. Johnston** that the phosphorus of the phosphatic nodules 
was derived from animal remains in higher beds, dissolved out 
by acids, and re-deposited at a lower level. 
S. y. Wood in 1859 drew attention to the extraneous fossils 
of the Red Crag,ft and remarked that this deposit shows the 
action of strong tidal currents, is more littoral in character, and 
contains a larger per-centage of derived fossils than any other 
formation. He suggested that Christchurch Bay (Hampshire) 
shows like conditions to those of the Red Crag sea. He regarded 
the terrestrial vertebrates as intruders, but differed from Sir R. 
* Hep. Brit. Assoc, for 1845, Sections^ pp. 51-52. (1846.) 
f A History of British Fossil Mammals and Birds. 8vo. London, p. 542. 
J Hep. Brit. Assoc, for 1847, Sections, p. 64. (1848.) 
§ Journ. R. Agric. Soc., vol. x. pp. 520-525. 
II Ann. Nat. Hist., ser. 2, vol. viii. pp, 205-211. 
if Journ. R. Agric. Soc., vol. xii. pp. 91-105. 
** Rep. Brit. Assoc, for 1853, Sections, p. 52. 
ft Quart. Journ, Geol. Soc., vol. xv. pp. 32-45, 
