92 THE ESSEX FIELD CLUB.
may, however, safely say that erratics are very much more abundant
at Chiver's Paun, Stondon Massey, Paslow Hall Farm, and at the
localities I have described along the Cripsey Brook than at Green-
sted or Navestock Park.
At Marden Ash there were some very good sections in Boulder
Clay, one of them two furlongs N.W. of Marden Ash House, at a level
of 200 feet O.D., showed three feet of very white and chalky Boulder
Clay, containing pebbles of chalk and unworn flints, one of these
latter being eight inches long. I also noted a large broken flint over
one foot long, shells of Gryphaea and small quartz pebbles.
The question whether the valley of the River Roding is Pre-
Glacial or not has given rise to some discussion.13 On the whole I
am inclined to think that to a certain extent it is. There are a most
pleasing number of footpaths in the fields round Ongar, and I have
therefore been able to explore the boundary of the Boulder-Clay as
mapped very carefully, and it seems to me that the Boulder-Clay
shows a tendency to descend into the valley to a certain extent on
both sides of the river from Abridge to Ongar. Thus, at Theydon
Bois the Boulder-Clay runs down the slope from 254 ft. O.D. to
160 ft. O.D.; near Shonks Mill it comes down to about 150 ft. O.D.
on both sides of the river, and at Marden Ash the bottom of the
Boulder-Clay is about 190 ft. O.D. Above Ongar there is nothing
to show whether the Roding follows the course of an old Pre-Glacial
stream or not, for the glacial deposits have not been cut through by
the modern river.
THE ESSEX FIELD CLUB.
Field Meeting and 139TH Ordinary Meeting at Ilford.
Saturday, April 29th, 1893.
On this afternoon an excursion was made in the neighbourhood of Ilford,
under the guidance of Mr. Walter Crouch, F.Z.S., Vice-President. The other
directors announced on the programme were Mr. F. C. J. Spurrell, F.G.S., and
Mr. T. G. Holmes, F.G.S., V.P., but both these at the last were unable to come.
Starting from the station about 2.40, the members proceeded to Uphall,
where Mr. Crouch pointed out the site of the famous pits, which have now for
some years been worked out and levelled. Here he gave an account of the
interesting remains of the mammals found in the brick earth, of Pleistocene age,
13 Whitaker, op. cit., pp. 366-7.