akctic freshwater bed. 
197 
The Spermophilus, at present the only vertebrate known 
from this horizon, was found a few inches under the Boulder 
Clay in digging out a lump of the freshwater clay to wash for 
plant remains.* The specimen was much crushed; in fact, 
though it was probably nearly a whole skeleton, the only 
recognizable parts were a few teeth, tail-vertebrae, and foot- 
bones; and the thin seam of sand in which it occurred was 
flattened to about an eight of an inch. By drying and washing 
the clay through a sieve the leaves can be obtained uninjured, 
and so well preserved that the twigs of Salix polaris retain 
their original glossy chocolate-brown color. The leaves and 
moss may be dried in ordinary botanical paper. 
Unfortunately the continuation of this deposit, both eastward 
and westward, is much obscured by talus, and where plants are 
absent the shells alone are not sufficient to show whether the 
bed belongs to the Arctic Freshwater Bed or to the upper part 
of the Forest-bed. 
About eight}^ yards north-west of the Gap near Ostend Brick¬ 
kiln, Bacton, when the beach is very low, and the base of the 
Boulder Clay can be examined, the Arctic Freshwater Bed is 
again seen. The section is as fellows :— 
Feet, 
Soil 
Till - 
Arctic Fresh¬ 
water Bed. 
Bedded marl, much piped 
Laminated sand and loam - . . 
Hard Boulder Clay with little Chalk ^ 
Hard bedded blue loam, sand, and gravel : 
Arctic plants in the loam, Salix Solaris, 
Betula nana, &c. 
3 
2 
3 
5 
2 - 1 - 
This section was 6niy once seen. After a severe gale the beach 
was exceptionally low, and a good exposure of the loam was 
laid bare at the foot of the cliff. Several species of plants were 
then obtained from it, but a few days later it was entirely 
hidden, and has not since been uncovered. The base of the 
Till is low at Ostend, and the beach exceptionally high, so that 
the deposits immediately under the Boulder Clay are, as a rule, 
entirely hidden, and there is also a considerable thickness of 
beds always obscured by the slope of the beach. The connection 
of the Arctic Freshwater Bed with the Upper Freshwater Bed 
seen near low-water mark, has not yet been made out. For 
about 300 yards north-west of the Gap, freshwater beds have 
been seen here and there at the base of the cliff; but further 
observations are needed before they can be definitely referred to 
this horizon ; they may belong to the Forest-bed. 
Though the term Freshwater Bed ” has been used in this 
Metnoir for the stratum containing the Arctic plants, the deposit 
may perhaps be more accurately described as a flood-loam or 
sand, for the greater part of it does not appear to have been 
permanently under water, the most abundant shells being 
* Vide Geol. Mag., dec. II., vol. iv., p. 51. (1882.) 
