CKOMEK EOREST-BEDo 
171 
About a quarter of a mile south-east of Walcot Gap, fresh¬ 
water clays reappear, apparently forming the north-westerly por¬ 
tion of the deposit winch extends to beyond* Ostend Gap, filling 
an eroded hollow in the lower strata. Near the commencement 
the section was as follows:—■ 
Feet. 
2 
3| 
8 
2 
2 
6 
1 
The base of the Boulder Clay being here very low, and the 
beach high, no Pre-glacial beds can be seen, except after severe 
gales; in fact, one may often walk from Bacton to Eccles 
without being able to find a trace of any beds older than the 
Till. A few yards from the spot where the last-mentioned 
section was measured, Arctic plants {Salix polaris and Betula 
nana) were found immediately beneath the Till: so it is possible 
that the bedded clays may really belong to the higher division 
and not to the Forest-bed Series. The sections have of late years 
been too obscure to allow this question to be settled. 
At Ostend the Freshwater Bed appears at the foot of the beach, 
where it was discovered by Green in 1841, but the section is 
now so altered that the very fossiliferous deposit he found is 
either entirely swept away or constantly hidden by the beach. 
There is now to be seen hard thick-bedded freshwater loam, 
which appears to lie in a hollow excavated in alternating beds of 
laminated clay and lignite. In this lacustrine deposit no mam¬ 
malian remains could be found, but teeth and scales of fish, and 
fruit or seeds of Trapa natans, Ceratophyllum demersumj, Hip- 
puris vulgaris, Finus sylvestris, Finns abies, &c. occur. Green 
obtained an important series of fossils from this place, including 
bones of deer, mole, shrews, and the Russian desman {Myogale 
moschata). 
This freshwater deposit can be traced nearly continuously for 
a quarter of a mile south-east of Ostend, gradually rising and 
allowing the underlying beds to be seen. Where good exposures 
can be examined, roots penetrate the weathered surface of the 
estuarine beds. South-east of Bacton the middle division of the 
Forest-bed appears to have become more fluviatile, and conse¬ 
quently it is difficult to separate it from the Upper Freshwater 
Bed, unless the intervening weathered land-surface happens to 
be exposed. 
About 550 yards south-east of Ostend Gap, at half-tide, there 
is seen lignite, with seeds of yew, and abundance of fir-cones, 
resting on loam penetrated by small roots. 
Blown sand 
Soil 
1st Till 
Upper Fresh¬ 
water Bed. 
Forest-bed 
(estuarine). 
Hard stony loam - - - _ 
r Hard loam mixed with sand and a little 
gravel - - - - - 
[Hard bedded blue clay, full of Gyclas cornea 
(Strata hidden by beach) - - _ 
Olay-pebbles, coarse red sand, carbonaceous 
clay, small gravel, and a little lignite and 
peat 
