ON THE NATURE OF GRAVEL PATCHES IN ESSEX.
101
the most persistent feature of the beds is the presence of a shingle of
precisely the same character over a very large area.
The chief interest of this paper to residents in Essex and in other
counties west of it lies in the evidence he brings forward in favour of
the view that many of the patches of gravel which are found capping
the hills in the London Basin mark the inland extension of these
Westleton Shingle Beds. Prof. Prestwich gives the average com-
position of the Westleton Shingle at Westleton as being roughly :—
The proportions of these constituents vary not only in every pit
but in different parts of the same pit. Our author, however, notes as
characteristic of the Westleton Beds, wherever they may be seen, the
presence of pebbles of southern origin (unknown in Glacial deposits)
such as subangular fragments of Chert and Ragstone of the Lower
Greensand, and the total absence of large dark red and grey rounded
quartzite-pebbles of the New Red Sandstone, which are common in
beds of Glacial age.
Numerous sections of Westleton Beds and the strata associated
with them, as seen in various parts of the London Basin, are given.
Many beds of shingle found here and there in Suffolk, Essex, Middle-
sex, Hertfordshire, Buckinghamshire and Berkshire are identified as
Westleton. In Essex, sections showing gravel which Prof. Prestwich
is inclined to consider as belonging to this series may be seen at
Walton-on-the-Naze, Clacton, between Chappie and Mark's Tey, near
Witham and Braintree, Braxted and Thaxted. The gravel capping
the hill at Maldon is thought to be probably of Westleton age, but the
patches at Writtle Park, Brentwood, Langdon Hill and Rayleigh are
considered to be of earlier date. In the Epping Forest district the
gravel at High Beach, Jack's Hill and Gaynes Park is classed as
Westleton Shingle, while that which extends from Buckhurst Hill to
Woodford Hill is said to be "of a character intermediate between the