OKOMER FOREST-BED. 
i77 
has cut out the Rootlet-bed also, and rests on the gravels. The 
section obtained in this boring, which commenced about three feet 
above high-water level, and two feet below the top of the Boulder 
Clay was :— 
Feet. 
Lower Boulder 
Olay. 
Forest-bed 
Series. 
r Brown loam with fragments of shells - 
K Blue clay and white specks (of flint ?) - 1 
L Brown sandy loam - - - - 
/ Gravelly quartz sand and gravel, full of 
X water - - - - - 4|- 
Then the Pliocene strata are lost for about four miles and do 
not reappear till we have passed Pakefield. 
The first section seen at Pakefield is exactly opposite the end 
of the Grand Avenue, where six inches of gravelly pan were 
seen on the foreshore, at the level of high-water. Beneath this 
lie laminated clays and sand to the depth of twelve feet, as proved 
by boring. The pan may be either the base of the Forest-bed, 
or may belong to the higher ^‘pebbly beds,” which directly overlie 
the Ohillesford Clay in the cliffs a short distance further south. 
Fossiliferous strata undoubtedly belonging to the Forest-bed series 
do not appear till we have passed Pakefield Lighthouse Gap, 
though both the Chillesford Clay and the pebbly gravels can be 
traced continuously for three and a half miles north of that point. 
About fifty yards south of the Lighthouse Gap an eroded 
hollow in the Chillesford Clay (shown in Mr. Blake's section*) 
is occupied by loam, sand, and gravel full of quartz and 
quartzite pebbles. This deposit, which extends for about 430 
3 "ards, Mr. Blake refers to the Lower Boulder Clay; but from 
its position, the composition of the gravels, and the absence of 
Boulder Clay stones, I think it is more probably a weathered 
representative of a portion of the Forest-bed like that next to be 
described. 
At two hundred yards south of the Gap another eroded hollow 
commences, and the deposits filling it seem undoubtedly to 
belong to the Forest-bed series, for they contain throughout the 
characteristic fossils. This hollow extends nearly as far as 
Kessingland, and the reading which most simply explains the 
variation in the deposits filling it, is that here we find another 
of the eroded channels so characteristic of the Forest-bed. As 
the channel became disused and silted up there were deposited, 
first the river gravels and alluvial clays with drifted bones ; and 
then, only in the last part of the channel to be occupied, peaty 
mud full of leaves, twigs, and seeds, such as would settle in any 
stagnant backwater. Thus for over half-a-mile south of the 
parish boundary only gravelly deposits occur, capped by alluvial 
clay, which is weathered in its upper part and penetrated by 
roots. At the northern side of the valley the remains of the 
last trench occupied by the river may be observed. This was 
bounded on its southern side by an old alluvial flat, covered by 
* Horizontal Sections, Sheet 128. (^Geological Survey.') 
E 60798. H 
