lxviii 
PROCEEDINGS OE THE 
they are largely developed south and east of London, and extend 
northwards to the borders of Essex and Suffolk, and possibly 
almost into Hertfordshire, north of Bishop’s Stortford. The higher 
beds of the Upper Chalk are also absent, and it is therefore prob¬ 
able that the Chalk was for a longer period dry land here, and on 
the north-western margin of the London Basin generally, than on 
the south-eastern margin, either from its greater elevation or later 
depression, having therefore been subjected to denudation for a 
greater length of time. The character of the next succeeding 
deposits here seen, the "Woolwich and Beading Beds, bears out this 
hypothesis, for they are more fluviatile or estuarine than they are 
to the south-east, where they repose on the marine Thanet Sands. 
The Lower and main portion of the Beading Beds here exposed 
consists of false-bedded sand, showing that it was subjected to 
strong currents, and therefore furnishing additional evidence of the 
proximity of land. 
The section was then compared bed by bed with Mr. Whitaker’s 
description of it as it appeared in 1869 (see p. lxvii). With the ex¬ 
ception of a slight difference in the thickness of the highest beds of 
the Beading series, the only alteration since then appeared to be that 
there is now a continuous section from the London Clay downwards, 
the “ smaller pits ” mentioned by him being merged into one large 
pit communicating with that in which the London Clay is exposed. 
Yery different it appears to have been in 1854 when examined by 
Professor Prestwich, who gave the following section :*■— 
Basement-bed 
of the 
London Clay. 
Woolwich 
and 
Beading 
Series.. 
Chalk. 
Mixed clay and gravel . 
( Brown sandy clay laminated with tougher clay, containing 
casts of Panopcea , etc. 
Flint-pebbles in clay .. .. '... 
f Light greenish sand . 
White or ash-coloured sand . 
I Light yellow sands. * .. 
Light-coloured mottled red and grey clays . 
I Yellow sand with patches of Ostrea Bellovacina in places 
1 at its base . . 
f Green-coated flints. 
feet. 
. 1 
. 6 
. 0 * 
. 4 
. 6 
. 4 
. 10P 
, 6 ? 
, 1 
In the basement-bed of the London Clay have been found 
Panop cea intermedia , Pectunculus plumsteadiensis, undetermined 
species of Cardium , Astarte (?), Fusus, and Ostrea , and teeth 
of lamna. f 
After some time had been devoted to an examination of this 
section, the party left the brickfields and walked by way of Bush 
Green and the picturesque “Walnut-tree Walk ” to a large chalk¬ 
pit on Amwell Hill, and from there to Amwell Magna or Great 
Amwell (Emmewell or Emma’s Well of Domesday Book), where a 
powerful spring rises from the chalk, augmenting the water of the 
Hew Biver. 
* ‘ Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc.,’ vol. x, p. 92. 
f Prestwich, loc. cit vol. vi, p. 271. 
