CKOMER FOREST-BED, 
151 
river bank, and settling, generally in an upright position, as we 
should expect from the greater density of the roots, and from the 
Fig. 36. 
Plan of a Group of Trees in the Forest-bed at Trimingliam, 
Scale. 2 feet to an inch. 
weight of the adhering soil, they have formed snags ” in the 
river, such as are constantly met with in streams flowing 
through a forest'clad country. Some of the tree-stumps may, 
however, be derived, like the cakes of peat, from the breaking up 
of the Lower Freshwater Bed. 
Since the year 1882, when the Geological Survey Memoir on 
the Cromer Forest-bed was published, a good deal has been learnt 
about the Forest-bed, especially with regard to its relations to the 
underlying strata. The making of trial-borings in 1886 and 
1888, showed that the eroded surface beneath the deposit was 
one of the most marked features, and that there was always a 
more or less gravelly base to the Forest-bed, beneath which the 
Crag was cut into by numerous channels or hollows. The higher 
deposits were so gravelly and full of water that, with the light 
tools used, and without lining-pipes, boring was difficult, but the 
base was reached in a sufficient number of cases to show the 
change from estuarine gravels and clays to strata of marine 
origin. Several of the boiings were stopped by this gravelly 
base of the Forest-bed, and could not be carried into the Crag. 
Owing to contemporaneous erosion, or to the cutting of 
channels after the strata were consolidated, one or more of the 
three divisions of the Cromer Forest-bed are often missing. 
Where possible the exact horizon represented in the section will 
be indicated in the following notes, but among such variable 
deposits it is not always easy to identify the different portions, 
even where the exposures are nearly continuous. No evidence 
has at present been discovered of any change of climate, or 
variation in the fauna and flora between the periods when the 
