SUFFOLK, a maritime county on the east coast of England, lying between 51' 56' and sr 37' N. 1st, 0° 23' and P 46' E. long. It is bounded N. by Norfolk ; E. by the German Ocean; S. by Essex ; and W. by Cambridgeshire, from which it is separated by the river Lark, a feeder of the Great Ouse. The greatest length is from north-east to south-west, from Southtown, a suburb of Oreat Yarmouth, to near Haverhill, 68 miles ; the greatest breadth, nearly at right angles to the length, is from the bank of the Little Ouse, In the north-west corner of the county, to Landguard Fort, opposite Harwich, 52 miles. The area of the county is 1454 square miles, or 947,681 statute acres : the popuLttion in 1841 was 315,073; In 1851 it was 337,215.
Surface; Coast-Line.—The surface of this county is gently undulat ing, except just along the north-western and some parts of the north eastern border, where the land subsides Into a marshy flat, secured from overflow only by embanking the course of the rivers. Some marshes also border the rivers in the south-east part, but none of these are of any extent. The highest ground in the county, as deter mined by the course of the waters, forma a ridge of crescent-like shape, extending through the centre of the county. It may be indicated by a line drawn from the neighbourhood of Lowestoft in the north-east, between Bungay sod lIaleaworth, to the neighbourhood of Deben ham ; and thence to the western border of the county, passing between Stowmarket and Ixworth, between Bury and Lavonham, and between Newmarket and Clare. The waters which flow northward from this linedall tote the Waveney or the Ouse; while those which flow south ward join the Stour, the Orwell, the Deben, or other streams flowing into the German Ocean.
Tho coast has a tolerably regular outline, convex to the sea. The bays are shallow, and the headlands have little prominence. 11ollesley Bay, Aldeburgh, or Aldborough Bay, and Soutbwold, or Sole Bay, are the chief bays. The headlands are—the point on which Landguard Fort is placed, at the entrance of the [estuary of the Orwell and the Stour, opposite Harwich; the point at Bowdsey; Orford Ness, near Orford; the point. near the village of Thorpe; Easton Ness; and
Lowestoft Ness, the most easterly point in Great Britain. The har bours are the [estuariea of the rivers Stour and Orwell, Deben, Butley, or Alde, Blyth, and Yare, and the artificial cut through lake Lothing into the Waveney. The [estuary of the Stour and the Orwell is for the most part lined with marshes.
The sea-shore from Landguard Fort is lined for about two miles with sand-hills, and thence for two miles, nearly to the [estuary of the Deben, by low cliffs of crag upon blue-clay. Beyond the [estuary of the Deben (which is skirted by a narrow line of marsh-land) cliffs of similar formation to those just mentioned recommence, and extend nearly three miles to the point at Bowdaey. The entire coast of the county is estimated at above fifty miles in extent, a great portion being low. and marshy, and the remainder Hued with cliffs of shingle or gravel, and red loam.
Geology, &c.—The greater part of the county is covered by diluvial beds. The exceptions are the crag and London clay district of the south-east, and the chalk district of the north-west The crag and London clay district may be considered ae bounded by a line drawn from Orford by Woodbridge and Ipswich to the banks of the Stour, between Sudbury and Nayland. The chalk is found to the north-west of a line drawn from Euston, near Thetford, to Bury St. Edmunds, and thence west by south to the border of the couuty. The crag formation consists chiefly of thin layers of quartzose-nand and com minuted shells, resting sometimes on chalk, sometimes on the London clay. It is divided into the red-crag and the coralliue-crag. Lyell refers the crag formations to the Older Pliocene period. The thick ness of the crag is not known : it hes been penetrated 50 feet near Orford without reaching the bottom. The chalk of the north-western side of the county does not rise into high hills ; the formation appears to extend under the diluvial beds which occupy the centre of the county.