CROMER FOREST-BED. 
147 
Crag, and includes the Boulder Clay in the upper marine 
forD:jation.” 
Samuel Woodward, in his^^ Outline of the Geology of Norfolk,” 
published in 1833, appears to have been the first distinctly to 
separate the Forest-bed from the Drift, but in his table of 
Strata he places it beneath the Norwich Crag. 
Sir C. Lyell in 1840 gave a long description of the beds, but 
stated that he was not so fortunate either here or elsewhere on 
this coast as to see the stools of trees erect in this stratum, but 
so many independent eye-witnesses have lately described them 
to me with such minuteness as to leave in my mind no doubt of 
the fact.”* * * § 
The Rev. Charles Green, in his History, Antiquities, and 
Geology of Bacton,” published in 1842, gave some valuable local 
notes; but divided the Cromer Forest-bed into Eocene, Older 
Pliocene, and Newer Pliocene, and his statements are not always 
trustworthy. In 1845 Joshua Trimmer noticed the sand with 
Mya truncata over the Fresh-water Bed at West Runton.f 
Sir R. Owen, in his History of British Fossil Mammals and 
Birds,” published in 1846, described and figured many Forest- 
bed specimens. 
Prof. Prestwich in 1861J cleared up a point which had led to 
great confusion in most previous papers, by pointing out that at 
Mundesley there are two totally distinct Fresh-water Beds,— 
one beueath, the other above, the Boulder Clay. This section 
had previously been taken as proving the interstratification of 
the Forest-bed and Drift. 
In the first edition of Lyell’s Antiquity of Man,” published 
in 1863, a long description of the Forest-bed is given, and he 
says that “ Thirty years ago when I first examined this bed I 
saw many trees with their roots in the old soil laid open at the 
base of the cliff near Happisburgh.” But on comparing this 
with his paper of 1840 it is seen that the statement must be 
erroneous, for in the earlier account he distinctly says that he 
did not see them. {See observations in Mr. Norton’s paper 
mentioned further on.) 
Mr. John Gunn in 1864, in his ^-'Geology of Norfolk,” divided 
the strata on the coast into Norwich Crag, Forest-bed, and Lami¬ 
nated Beds. Between 1865 and 1882 a series of papers was 
published by S. V. Wood, jun., whose classification of the deposits 
has already been referred to (p. 144). One of the best general 
diagrams of the coast between Happisburgh and Weybourn, was 
published by him in 1865, in a pamphlet privately printed. A 
valuable account of the beds was given in 1868 by the Rev. O. 
Fisher.§ Prof. Prestwich in 1871 gave a description of the coast 
* On the Boulder Formation, or drift aud associated Fresh Water Deposits, 
composing the Mud Cliffs of Eastern Norfolk.— Phil. May., Ser. 3, vol. xvi., p. 34^. 
] Proc. Geol. Soc., vol. iv., p. 435 ; Jourii. Roy. Agric. Soc., vol. vii.,p. 444,1847. 
j On some New Facts in Relation to the Section of the Cliff at Mundesley, 
Norfolk.— Geologist, vol. iv , p. 68. 
§ On the Denudations of Norfolk.— Geol. Mag., vol. v., p. 544. 
K 2 
