Page:VCH Suffolk 1.djvu/56

 A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK shells such as Cyprina islandica, Cardium edule, Mya arenaria, Mactra ovalis, Pectunculus glycimeris, Turritella incrassata. Purpura /apillus, and many- other species. They were looked upon by the earlier observers, amongst whom was C. B. Rose, as re-constructed Crag, and this view is sup- ported by the fact that of more than loo species, all but two or three are found in the Crag, and that these shells do not occur in the Glacial sands remote from Crag regions.' Mr. Harmer, however, maintains that the fauna is contemporary.^ The sands contain a good deal of black carbonaceous matter, or comminuted lignite, that may have been derived from the Estuarine beds of Yorkshire. They contain also grains of chalk and much fine chalky material, especially at and near the junction with the overlying Boulder Clay. On this account by the dissolution of the carbonate of lime and its redeposit as a cement, the sands have been locally hardened into a calcareous sandstone. Beds of this character may be seen near Lowestoft, while curious concretionary columns of sandstone were met with at Mutford Wood,' and large consolidated blocks were observed near Coddenham.* The stone has been locally used for building purposes. Another feature of interest in the sands is the occurrence of occasional beds of fine loam. A bed of this nature was employed in the manufacture of the once famous Lowestoft china, the works being in existence from 1 756-1 802.' West of Bury St. Edmunds there are finely-bedded sands, loams and clays, much contorted in places ; while near Woolpit there is about 30 feet of brown laminated loam and dark bluish-grey clay, the brown loam being used for the manufacture of red bricks, and the clay for the white bricks for which Woolpit has been famous since the time of Queen Elizabeth.' Of considerable geological interest are the shingle beds or beds of pebbly flint gravel which occur in the sands near Fritton, Oulton, Kirkley and Pakefield, and appear to be the equivalents of the mass of the Westleton shingle on Westleton Common, and in the higher part of Dunwich Cliff.' This is one of the controverted questions in geology. It has not been doubted that the pebble gravel at Fritton, Oulton, Kirkley and Pakefield is part of the Middle Glacial ; but it has been maintained by Prestwich and others that the mass of shingle at Westle- ton, Halesworth and Henham is older, and of early Glacial or early Pleistocene age. There is much gravel somewhat similar in character in the upper part of the Norwich Crag Series, in the subdivision termed 'Bure Valley Beds,' but this is rightly regarded by Mr. F. W. Harmer as distinct H. B. Woodward, Proc. Geol. Assoc, ix. iii. Froc. Geol. Assoc, xvii. 459. H. K. Creed, Proc. Suffilk Inst. iv. (1872), 244. G. Maw, Geol. Mag. (1867), p. no. J. H. Blake, ' Geology of the countrj' near Yarmouth and Lowestoft,' p. 96. Ibid. ' Geology of the neighbourhood of Stowmarket,' p. 13. H. B. Woodward, Geol. Mag. (1902), p. 27. (Herein are references to other papers.) 20