On the Pliocene Deposits of Holland and their Relation to the English and Belgian Crags, with a Suggestion for the Establishment of a New Zone, ‘Amstelien,’ and some Remarks on the Geographical Conditions of the Pliocene Epoch in Northern Europe
I. Introduction. While engaged in the study of the conditions under which the English Crag–beds were deposited, I was fortunate enough to receive from Dr. J. Lorié, of Utrecht, two important papers on the strata met with in some deep borings in different parts of Holland. 1 These borings reveal the remarkable fact that the Newer Pliocene beds which underlie that country not only attain the great thickness of nearly 500 feet, but have been depressed at one point more than 1000 feet below their original position. The enquiry suggested itself whether this subsidence was connected with the series of earthmovements by which the Older Pliocene deposits of the South of England, of the North-east of France, and of Belgium have been raised to a height of between 500 and 600 feet above the level of the sea, how far the influence of these disturbances could be traced in East Anglia, and in what manner the deposition of the Cragdeposits was affected by them. The facts I have now to submit show that these movements of upheaval and subsidence have this in common, that they were not confined to one period, but went on, though not continuously, from the Pliocene until late in the Pleistocene epoch. The central portion of the area has not been affected by them to any large extent, and seems to have formed the pivot of the disturbance, while depression has increased progressively in a northerly direction, and elevation has been greatest in the south. For the