Page:Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London, vol. 27.djvu/623

This page needs to be proofread.

Sir Charles Lyell, in his £ Antiquity of Man,' gives a list of the plants from the Forest-bed, determined by Dr. Heer, they are : —

Pinus sylvestris. Nuphar lutea.

Abies excelsa. Ceratophyllum demersum.

Taxus baccata. Potamogeton.

Prunus spinosa. Alnus.

Menyanthes trifoliata. Quercus.

Nymphaea alba.

To these Mr. Gunn adds rhizomes and fronds of Ferns.

The insects have not yet been fully described. They include several species of Donacia.

The following affords a good general section of this series, lying beneath the Boulder- clay, in this part of the coast.

Fig. 37. — Section of the Westleton Beds near Mundesley.

a. Laminated grey clay without fossils.

b. Sand and small gravel with freshwater shells.

c. Laminated grey clay.

d. Sand and gravel with fragments of wood and marine shells: oblique lamination common.

e. Fine sand.

f. Clay and gravel with Mytili and Lymnoeoe.

g. Laminated grey clay.

h. Coarse gravel. Elephant-bed.

Dark sandy clay. Forest-bed.

These beds may be followed, with few interruptions, to Trimlingham and Cromer. Mr. Gunn states that it is from these beds at Bacton that the remains of two Whales were obtained ; and it is probable that, as the Forest-bed is not exposed at Cromer, the Narwhal tusk and the remains of a Walrus found by Mr. King near Cromer were also from the sand-and-shingle beds.

The next point of interest is near Runton Gap, where we again find at the base of the series a bed of peaty clay full of the following species of freshwater shells : — Bythinia tentaculata, Valvata piscinalis, V. spirorbis, Planorbis marginatus, P. fontanus, Limnoea palustris, Paludina achatina, Pisidium amnicum, P. nitidum, Sphoerium corneum, Anodonta cygnea, Unio pictorum, U. margaritifer. Some years ago Mr. Trimmer discovered in the sand and shingle between this peaty bed and the Lower Boulder-clay, at Runton Gap, a bed containing numerous Mya truncata and Leda myalis in their natural vertical position, with both valves perfect. The section is as shown in fig. 38.

This brings us back to the part of the cliffs described {ante, p. 460) in the section on the Norwich Crag. The beds now lose their subordi-

2 k 2