444 FOSSIL QUADRUMANOUS REMAINS IN SUFFOLK. 



There is an opening by a prominent circular lip, between 

 these appendages. A contraction separates the part on which 

 are situated the opening and appendages from the rest of the 

 body. There appears to be another opening at the opposite 

 extremity of the animal. 



Atr. TV. — Letter from S. V; Wood, Esq., late Curator to the Ge- 

 ological Society, announcing the discovery of Fossil Quadrumanous 

 Remains, near Woodbridge, Suffolk. 



13 Bernard St., Aug. 21, 1839. 



Sir, 



Hearing from Mr. Lyell that a mammiferous tooth 

 had been obtained by Mr. Wm. Colchester, from a clay-pit 

 at Kingston, near Woodbridge, I was naturally desirous of 

 visiting the spot, which T did, not without a slight hope of 

 finding something more, or at least, of inducing a farther 

 search to be undertaken. The bed in which the tooth was 

 found lies immediately beneath a stratum of blue clay, which 

 is used by Mr. Colchester in making bricks; but as the digging 

 and working are only carried on during the winter, I was 

 fearful that little could be done before that period. Hearing 

 however from one of the men that a heap of sand, lying near 

 the pit, had been thrown aside from those beds, I prevailed 

 on Mr. Colchester, who was with me, to employ a boy to sift 

 and search it, thinking it would probably yield something for 

 the trouble, having myself, in the course of a few minutes, 

 found several fishes 1 teeth upon the surface. I am happy to 

 say that I have since received a letter from Mr. Colchester, 

 accompanied by a fossil, of which the annexed / ^^ 57 



engraving (fig. 57) is a faithful representation. 

 The specimen has been examined by Mr. 

 Owen, who has kindly undertaken to give his 

 opinion respecting it, in a paper to accompa- 

 ny the present communication. 



As this is the first notice of a quadrumanous animal having 

 been found in England, it is of great importance correctly to 

 ascertain the age of the bed to which it belongs ; the fossil 

 itself contains sufficient internal evidence to remove all doubt 

 of its genuineness, as it has not the least appearance that a 

 recent tooth would have assumed, conceiving such to have 

 been accidentally introduced into the heap, even if Mr. 

 Owen's determination of its extinct character were not a war- 

 rant for its originality. I received with it one or two frag- 



