240 Jaiso and Teeth of a Mammoiith. 



Art. XII. Description of the Jaw and Teeth of a Mammoth, and 

 of some other Fossils, found in a Flint Quarry in the Neighbour- 

 hood of Chatham; being the Substance of a Lecture delivered 

 to the Philosophical and Literary Society of that Town by 

 Robert Dadd, Esq. Communicated by Mr. Dadd. 



Several months since I received information that an enor- 

 mous jaw, with teeth in it, had been discovered in a flint 

 quarry at Luton, a village in the neighbourhood of this town, 

 situate in the midst of the transverse valley of the chalk form- 

 ation, at the mouth of which, and where it opens into the 

 river Medway, this town is seated. I lost no time in pro- 

 ceeding to the spot, and securing these interesting relics ; 

 when I also effected an arrangement with the proprietor of 

 the quarry for receiving whatever else of the kind he should 

 in future discover there. Several portions of bones, and 

 several teeth of different genera, have since been obtained. 



1. The jaw, which, before I arrived at the spot, had been 

 reduced to fragments and dispersed, measured 2 ft. from the 

 front to the angles : its figure is described to be like that 

 formed by the arms of a man stretched out horizontally 

 before him ; making the tips of the fingers of each hand to 

 touch, and giving, at the same time, a slight curve to the 

 arms and fingers. At the thickest part, that which included 

 the teeth, it was, as near as I could ascertain, 8 in. through; 

 but, in consequence of its fragmentary state when I obtained 

 it, I am unable to give a fuller account of it, except that its 

 structure was cancellated, and indicated that the animal was 

 young at the time of its destruction. 



2. The teeth, two in number, occupied the opposite sides 

 of the jaw : they measure, from front to back, 7 in. ; across 

 the centre of the crown, 2f in. ; from the crown to the radical 

 processes (which are broken off), 5f in. The plates, made 

 apparent on the crown by attrition in mastication, are eight 

 in number in each, and are perfectly divided from each other 

 by the intervention of the crusta petrosa ; the average thick- 

 ness of the plates is xb in. ; the thickness of the crusta 

 petrosa is rather less than that of the plates ; three, or per- 

 haps four, of the back plates are missing : taking these into 

 account, seven plates have not yet appeared on the crown. 

 The crusta petrosa was soft when the specimens were first 

 discovered, but it has now become hard ; it is very greedy of 

 water, and adheres strongly to the tongue. {Jig. 49. a.) 



3. A tooth of an animal of the same genus as the last, but 

 of a different species, and an older animal : the general form 

 is the same as of them, but it differs, I think, specifically. It 

 measures, from front to back, 9 in. ; the width across the centre 



