132
THE ESSEX FIELD CLUB.
guide. It was a source of pleasure to him, and he liked to see the members of
the Association and the Essex Field Club together and enjoying themselves, and
he thought he might safely say that the members did not regret their visit to
Walton-on-Naze. It was good, in his opinion, for such wandering societies
as theirs to meet and discuss things of geological interest. He trusted they might
meet many times more under similar circumstances. Mr. Holmes also proposed
a vote of thanks to Mr. J. W, Eagle for his permission to examine the cliffs,
remarking that, notwithstanding the recent erosions, a party of fifty could very
seriously damage the cliffs and the few pieces of Red Crag that remained in
Essex, in a much shorter space of time than the elements could.
Most of the members shortly after left by the evening train, but a part of
about eighteen decided to visit Clacton, Mr. Whitaker again acting as geological
guide. The "Royal Hotel" was the headquarters. At Great Clacton the party
was interested in noticing that the walls of the originally Norman, but largely
restored church, were mainly composed of nodules of Septaria from the London
Clay. Great Clacton is about 11/2 miles northward of Clacton-on-Sea. At the
latter place the chief objects of geological interest are the section of the cliff
under Martello Tower No. 6, at the western end of the town, and the remains
of a submerged forest, a little further westward. The cliff section is fully de-
scribed and illustrated in the Geological Survey Memoir, by Mr. W. H. Dalton,
on sheet 48 S.W. (price 1s.). East of the Martello Tower the cliff consists of
London Clay on which rests gravel, which Prof. Prestwich is somewhat inclined
to class as Westleton Shingle ; above which, again, lies some irregularly-bedded
loamy gravel. But as we approach the Martello Tower from the east the two
beds of gravel just mentioned are seen to be separated by a thin bed of greenish-
grey mottled clay, which gradually descends and thickens westward, and is seen
to belong to a series of estuarine and fresh-water beds of post-glacial age, the
lower members of which lie at the base of a cliff consisting of London Clay, and
of the lower of the two gravel beds. Mr. Dalton remarks: "The presence of
purely fresh-water beds below high-water mark, passing up into estuarine deposits
on the top of the cliff (20 feet above high-water mark) indicates gradual submer-
gence and subsequent re-elevation."
The submerged forest is only visible at low water, and consists of a blue clay
with vegetable remains, about 18 inches thick, and lying on the London Clay.
We saw many prostrate trunks, and, among others, the branch of a birch tree.
Mr. Whitaker was of opinion that these trees had grown on some alluvial flat,
which, owing to the inroads of the sea, combined with a slight subsidence of the
area, had been brought to its present position and level. And Mr. Dalton
remarks, in the memoir already mentioned, that "The existence of foundations on
the verge of the tidal flat of St. Peter's Sands, seven miles W.S.W., seems to
favour the theory of subsidence within the historic era, as at present alluvium is
being deposited there."
Some of the visitors left by the "Clacton Belle" on Sunday afternoon, and
the rest by the 2.53 train on Monday.
Flowering Plants of Colchester District.—Correction.—In my report
for 1889 (E.N., iii., p. 222) Erythraea littoralis was given for Frinton on the
authority of the Rev. E. F. Linton. I have since heard from Mr. Linton that the
plant was not the true E. littoralis as he had at first supposed.—J. C. SHENSTONE,
Colchester, 1890.