PREFACE

Summary

THE earliest paper on Cambridgeshire Geology was published more than a hundred years ago, but the first important general description was given in 1861 in the lecture by Professor Sedgwick on “The Strata near Cambridge and the Fens of the Bedford Level.” It was first reported in the local press but afterwards reprinted with a supplement and diagram sections. Two years previously Mr Lucas Barrett, assistant to Prof. Sedgwick, had published with the aid of the latter a map of the neighbourhood of Cambridge. Since then a multitude of geologists have studied the stratigraphy and palæontology of the district and have added immensely to our knowledge by their detailed investigations, but they have only tended to establish the general accuracy of the broad outlines sketched in by Professor Sedgwick.

Amongst the earliest and most energetic workers at the local geology was Prof. H. G. Seeley, whose careful and energetic research in this district is represented not only by numerous papers in various scientific journals but by the arrangement of a considerable part of the local collections in the Woodwardian Museum.

In 1872 Mr A. J. Jukes-Browne, who for many years has been issuing the valuable results of his geological work in East Anglia, published a revised version of Mr Barrett's map; and in 1875 Prof. T. G. Bonney, who had been requested to re-edit Prof. Sedgwick's lecture of 1861, brought out his excellent manual of “Cambridgeshire Geology,” which since then has been the standard book on the subject for students.