176 
CKOMEK rOREST-BED. 
A short distance further south, and not far from the road to 
Gorton Church, a block of the Rootlet-bed and of the overlying 
peaty seam, was taken by me for minute examination, from 
one of a series of sections which, through the liberality of 
Mr. Colman, had been opened up for the inspection of the 
members of the International Geological Congress.* 
The thin bed of lignite seemed so distinct from the underlying 
clay, that it was carefully detached and treated separately. 
When washed and examined, the residue proved, however, to 
be nothing but a deposit of twigs, seeds, and miscellaneous 
floating scraps, such as marks the high-water level of a flood at 
the present day. The most common seeds were those of Alder 
and Hornweed; but as all the species occur still more abun¬ 
dantly in the bed below, it is unnecessary to give a separate list. 
The underlying carbonaceous clay is snufl-coloured when dry, 
and splits readily into thin laminse, but does not fail to pieces in 
water. The surface of the flakes was carefully examined for 
leaves, with the result that portions of the stem and leafy bracts 
of the cotton grass were found plentifully ; but there was nothing 
else, except a single fragment of a dicotyledonous leaf, probably 
already skeletonised when it was imbedded, Scales of two or 
three species of fish were also noticed. The next process was to 
boil down the fragments of clay till the matrix could be washed 
away, leaving only twigs and seeds, for not a single stone was met 
with. 
Unlike most of the deposits near Cromer which I have ex¬ 
amined for seeds, the Corton beds seem to have been deposited as 
flood-loam, and not as true lacustrine clays. Aquatic plants are 
comparatively scarce, the common species being such as we should 
find on an alder swamp, or ‘‘ carr ” as it is called in the east of 
England. The alder itself is abundantly represented by cones 
and seeds ; other trees are only recognisable in the driftwood. 
Cotton grass and a species of buttercup come next in abundance. 
Then follow the hornweed, several sedges, pond-weeds, bur-reed 
and Atrpilex. 
The seeds are much compressed, more so than is usually the 
case near Cromer. But this, and the greater amount of decay 
they have undergone, may be the result of longer exposure to the 
weather in pre-glacial times. A seed sinking at once to the 
bottom of a lake suffers less than one exposed for a time to 
alternate flood and drought. It is also probable that many of 
the seeds from Corton had germinated, but their state of preser¬ 
vation is not such as to allow this question to be decided. 
About a hundred yards south of the road to the Church, the 
Lower Boulder Clay descends, cutting through the pebbly sand, 
and resting directly on the Rootlet-bed, as was the case near 
Hopton. A. few yards further, its base sinks still lower, so that 
no Pliocene beds can be seen in the cliff, though a boring imme¬ 
diately north of Corton Gap showed that there the Boulder Clay 
See Trana. Norf. Nat. Sac., vol. iv., p. 606. (1889.) 
