EASTERN BRITISH PLIOCENES.
299
or sufficiently opened up to permit the influx of these new
comers.
The occurrence at Oakley of a number of rolled and worn
specimens of pre-Gedgravian Mollusca leads to the conclusion
that some older deposit, hitherto untouched, was being drawn
upon. A few pebbles and small pieces of phosphate represent
the vast number of exotics of many kinds that characterise the
next group or zone of the Red Crags.4
The Newbournian, or, as it might be termed, the phosphate
zone, shows a still farther gain of the Crag sea upon the land in a
northerly direction ; the area so named stretches from Harwich
and Shotley to Bealings, west of Ipswich, the high grounds between
the rivers Orwell and Deben, and an extension to Sutton, on the
left bank of the Deben. Over the whole of this district Coprolites
seem to obtain, wherever searched for, and with them the varied
matters that pass as "remanie." From the number of non-
indigenous mollusca, it is probable that the older Diestien sands
had been heavily denuded, as it is during this stage the great
mass of phosphatic nodules, box-stones, ziphoid jaws, and the
bulk of the Cetacean remains were introduced. I had the
opportunity of visiting for some years the large excavation at
Waldringfield, and noted that these exotics were met with
throughout the body of the Crag, some 30 to 40 feet in thickness,
the greater part, however, having segregated downwards.
The occurrence of Paludina, Corbicula and some land shells
tend to show proximity to a land surface with a river draining
into the Crag sea. Some of the teeth of hyaena, beaver,
deer, and other animals are in so perfect condition that I see
no reason to reject them as contemporary with the sea fauna
of the Crag time.
Unlike Mr. Prestwich, who arrived at his conclusions as to
the unity of the Red Crag fauna from base to top by eliminating
a large number of the fossils as being derivative from the older
Crag, or as being merely varieties of other species, my brother
and I concluded the whole were all true denizens of the seas
the localities they occur in represent, with some few exceptions
including the pre-Gedgravian forms. An interesting feature
of the Waldringfield pit was the large number of Terebratulae
ranging from 1/4 to 11/2 inches in length, usually grouped near large
4 Sec Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. lvi., p. 717.