To Charles R. Bree 21 December 1852

My dear Bree,

Thanks for your information - but I was quite aware of the variable nature of these beds. If they were not so I should feel no difficulty about the point in question - viz the true position of your Stowmarket shell bed - I know it rests on the Chalk - but quere is it really the same bed we have on the chalk here & at Coombs. I have been fancying it must be younger than our great clay-drift - but I now believe it must be below it. The fossils of the secondary beds found in the Clay Drift as interesting - but I do not want them for my present purpose - any of the Pleistocene I should like - but I have enough for my lecture, & have prepared an illustration of the fluvia - marine deposit at Clacton.

Ever Yrs truly

J. S. Henslow