178 
OBOMER FOREST-BEB. 
trees of which portions of the roots remain ; but to the north 
the river was cutting into a bank of Chillesford Clay. Thus the 
bank is much steeper on that side, and there is no Rootlet-bed 
there. 
The relation of these deposits to the Chillesford Clay, is, how¬ 
ever, disputed. Mr. Blake considers that the laminated clays 
immediately above the gravel pass laterally into the Chillesford 
Clay ; thus making the gi'avel, with its Forest-bed fauna, older 
than the Chillesford Clay, and equivalent to the Norwich Crag.* 
This view is difficult to accept, for in 1886, with an exceptionally 
clear exposure of the northern end of the hollow, a thin seam of 
pebbles was traced, cutting obliquely across the Chillesford Clay, 
and separating the two somewhat similar deposits. Then by 
boring it was found that the channel was somewhat deeper than 
had been thought, and cuts entirely through the Chillesford Clay. 
Thus in places the mammaliferous gravel seems to rest imme¬ 
diately on shelly Crag. 
As the sections at Pakefield and Kessingland are fully described 
in Mr. Blake’s Memoir, it will only be necessary here to allude 
to some of the more interesting points. The conspicuous channel 
filled with black peaty loam yields few or no mammals, the only 
trace of vertebrates commonly found being fish-scales. For plants 
this is one of the best localities. The first sample washed and 
examined, in 1885, was a lump of material weighing about five 
pounds. This was obtained near the base of the deposit, on the 
northern side of the channel. It was full of decayed oak-leaves, 
and yielded 25 species of seeds and fruits. Since that time 
Messrs. R. E. Leach and T. P. Angell have sent me all the 
specimens obtained by them in the same deposit, with the result 
that the list now contains about 37 species. Of these 8 are 
forest-trees. The rest are all aquatic or marsh plants, with the 
exception of a single winged seed of a Composite, and a wood¬ 
land Spurge. The only species yet detera}ined which is not 
living in the neighbouring parts of Norfolk at the present day, is 
the Water Chestnut. There are two or three peculiar fruits 
which seem also to be locally extinct, but these so far have not 
been identified. They, however, like the Trapa natans, are 
characteristic of the Forest-bed, and help to prove the accuracy 
of the correlation of the different isolated exposures. The forest 
trees are particularly important, for they include three that do 
not now range much north of Norfolk. These are the Lesser 
Maple, the Cornel, and the Hornbeam. The Pine and Spruce are 
missing at this locality. 
Below the southern margin of this hollow, and underlying the 
Rootlet-bed also, there is ferruginous gravel containing Unio with 
* See Presid. Address On the Age and Relation of the so-called “ Forest bed ” of 
the Norfolk and Suffolk Coast.— Proc. Norwich GeoL Soc., pp. 137-160. (1881.) 
Horizontal Sections, Sheet 128, and Explanation, 8vo. (^Geological Survey')-, 
and Geology of the Country near Yarmouth and Lowestoft. (^Me7noirs of the 
Geological Survey.) 
