Abstract
IN the series of stratigraphical monographs on which ooo the Geological Survey is engaged, the preparation of the volume treating of the Pliocene deposits has been assigned to Mr. Clement Reid. In pursuance of the plan on which these works are being written, I requested him to visit some of the Continental regions where deposits of corresponding age are best developed, and a personal acquaintance with which would extend his knowledge of their English equivalents. He has accordingly spent some time recently in Belgium and Holland, and among other localities visited the well-known exposures of the Diestian beds around Diest and Antwerp. The sections there laid open, the remarkable assemblage of organic remains contained in them, and the peculiar condition in which the shells at Diest have been preserved led him on his return to this country to re-examine the curious deposit of ironstone at Lenham, on the North Downs, in which, so far back as 1857, the occurrence of Pliocene shells was announced by Prof. Prestwich. Doubt was cast upon this identification of the age of these shells: by many geologists they were looked upon as Lower Eocene, though their original discoverer has consistently maintained his opinion. Mr. Reid has now been fortunate enough to obtain a considerable number of additional species that settle beyond doubt the Pliocene age of the Lenham beds, and thus confirm the view of the veteran Oxford Professor. The establishment of this point raises questions of such wide interest in geology that I feel justified in anticipating the appearance of the memoir in which the facts will be detailed. At my request Mr. Reid has drawn up the following report, which briefly embodies the facts he has brought to notice, and touches upon some of the problems which they suggest.
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REID, C. The Pliocene Deposits of Northwestern Europe . Nature 34, 341–343 (1886). https://doi.org/10.1038/034341a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/034341a0