The Principles of Stratigraphical GeologyMarr, J. E. (John Edward)
Science
The Principles of Stratigraphical Geology
Marr, J. E. (John Edward)
Geology, Stratigraphic
The term 'Crag' has been applied to shelly sands of which the British
Pliocene beds are largely composed. The oldest British Pliocene strata
are supposed to be the Lenham Beds, occurring in 'pipes' on the Chalk
of the North Downs, which are referred to the Lower Coralline Crag,
and some writers believe that the St Erth beds of Cornwall are of
similar age[106]. The former are ferruginous sands, and the latter
shelly sands and clays. The higher beds of the Coralline Crag are
found in Suffolk, and are largely calcareous, being made of remains of
polyzoa, molluscs, and other invertebrates. They were probably
deposited in deeper water than the rest of the British Pliocene
strata, and contain a far larger percentage of carbonate of lime. The
Red Crag consists of ferruginous shelly sands, of the nature of
sand-banks, formed near land; while the Norwich Crag is of a still
more littoral character, and contains remains of land shells and the
bones of mammalia mingled with the marine shells of the coast. The
higher Pliocene deposits are also coastal accumulations, even the
so-called Forest bed being a deposit and not a true surface soil, as
proved by the observations of Mr Clement Reid. At the summit of the
Cromer 'Forest' Series, however, is a true freshwater bed. These
British deposits appear to have been laid down on a coast line which
formed one side of the estuary of a large river, of which the present
Rhine is the 'betrunked' portion (to use a term introduced by Prof. W.
M. Davis)[107].
[Footnote 106: See Clement Reid, _Nature_, 1886, p. 342; and Kendall
and Bell, _Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc._, vol. XLII. p. 201.]
[Footnote 107: See a paper by Mr F. W. Harmer, "On the Pliocene
Deposits of Holland, and their relationship to the English and Belgian
Crags," _Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc._, vol. LII. p. 748.]
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