168 
OROMER EOREST-BED. 
a number of large derivative cakes of peat was found in the 
quartzite-gravel; these were all bored by Pholas, and contained 
large quantities of the peculiar fruit of the water chestnut 
{Trapa natans) (Fig. 41), a plant only known in other parts of 
Fig. 41. . 
Trapa naians, Linn, {fruit). 
Natural size. 
Britain by specimens from the Forest-bed. From the similar 
contents of the different cakes at any one place, it was probable 
that they had not drifted far, but till lately the Lower Fresh¬ 
water Bed was unknown in place near Mundesley. North-west 
of the village another accumulation of derivative cakes of peat 
was seen, but all the masses were composed ol* reeds, Trapa 
natans being absent. During October 1889 the deposit was 
discovered in place at lialf-tide level, 550 yards south of the 
stream. It is a black laminated peat, crowded with fruit of 
Trapa natans and opercula of Bythinia, but no other fossils 
were obtained, except a single specimen of Geratophyllum 
demersum. The surface of the peat is bored by Pholas. 
When the beach between Mundesley and Bacton has been 
cleared away by north-westerly gales, large quantities of bones 
are obtained, just below high-water mark, in alternating beds of 
clay-pebbles, laminated clay, and gravel with drift-wood and tree 
stumps. These beds extend to the foot of the beach, but sand¬ 
banks usually obscure the whole of the foreshore. The fossils 
obtained are generally bones and teeth of Elephas meridionalis 
and E. antiquus, and antlers of deer ; but probably here, as 
elsewhere, the scarcity of small specimens is largely owing to the 
little demand for them. An elephant’s tooth has a definite price, 
but most collectors care little for the smaller things ; and the long¬ 
shore men, when they notice them at all, find them so difficult to 
handle without breaking as not to be worth the trouble of 
preserving. 
About 500 yards from the sea-wall a perfect femur of elephant, 
5 feet in length, was found partly imbedded in the upper surface 
of the estuarine division of the Forest-bed. This specimen, now 
in the collection of Mr. Colman, at Gorton, is remarkable both for 
its perfect preservation and for the unusually high position 
