448 PORTION OF AN OPOSSUM'S JAW 



the Quadrumana were formerly distributed over parts of the 

 earth's surface, which at the present day, are so far altered as 

 regards the climate and vegetable productions, as to be unfit 

 for their existence. 



Art. V. — Illustrated Zoological Notices. By Edward Charles- 

 worth, F.G.S. &c. 



( Continued from page 353 .) 



1 . On the discovery of a Portion of an Opossum's Jaw in the London Clay, 



near Woodbridge, Suffolk. 



2. On some Fossil Teeth of the Genus Lamna,from the same deposit. 



A visit to the county of Suffolk, made within the last few 

 days, has put me in possession of some fossil remains from 

 the spot in which the fragment of an extinct macacque has 

 been procured by Mr. Wood ; and as the subject is one of 

 the highest interest, I am anxious that the additional infor- 

 mation which 1 have obtained should accompany the impor- 

 tant communication made by that gentleman to the present 

 number of the Magazine of Natural History. 



I believe it was in the early part of 1837, that Mr. William 

 Colchester, of Ipswich, who had then recently directed his 

 attention to the fossils of the crag, showed me the molar tooth 

 of some small mammiferous animal, which had been taken 

 from a clay-pit near Woodbridge, quarried for the purpose of 

 making bricks. From the character of the tooth I saw at once 

 that it could not be referred to any of our indigenous quad- 

 rupeds, though I was unable from recollection to determine 

 the genus, or even family, to which it probably belonged. — 

 As the tooth was associated with those of sharks, and the 

 quarry in the London clay district, Mr. Colchester supposed 

 it to be a London clay fossil ; and upon going over with him 

 to visit the spot, I saw no reason for suspecting the deposit to 

 be of more recent date, except the then unprecedented fact of 

 mammiferous remains occurring so low down in the tertiary 

 series. Aware of the important nature of the fact, assum- 

 ing our estimate of the age of the bed to be correct, Mr, 

 Colchester offered to place the fossil at my disposal, in the 

 event of my being inclined to record the circumstances of its 

 discovery in the Magazine of Natural History. I should cer- 

 tainly have done so at the time, had I not felt that before 

 announcing so novel a fact in the history of English tertiary 

 Geology, there were reasons which called for a most careful 

 examination of such sources of fallacy as might be present. 

 The visit which I paid to the quarry was a very hurried one, 



