DISCOVERED AT WOODBRIDGE. 449 



and as the crag was not here resting upon the surface of the 

 clay, the evidence which would have been decisive — that of 

 immediate superposition, was absent. The clay itself was 

 destitute of fossils, and its thickness was not greater than 

 that which may be sometimes seen in far more recent argil- 

 laceous deposits in Suffolk and Essex, and which deposits 

 might readily be confounded with the London clay, in the 

 absence of organic remains. In addition to this, I remarked 

 that the sharks' teeth, at that time the only fossil remains 

 found with the mammiferous tooth, were quite as character- 

 istic of the crag as of the London clay, being all of small 

 size, and of the forms which are common to both deposits. — 

 These reasons made me determine to postpone a notice of 

 this interesting specimen, until I should have satisfied my- 

 self, as far as possible, as to the antiquity of the stratum in 

 which it was imbedded. Nearly three years, however, have 

 now elapsed since its discovery was communicated to me, 

 and during the hasty visits that I have subsequently paid to 

 that part of the country, having never put my original inten- 

 tion into execution, or applied to Mr. Colchester for the spe- 

 cimen, it was handed over to Mr. Lyell on one of his late 

 excursions to Suffolk, and I believe will be noticed by him 

 at the Birmingham meeting of the British Association. 



In the early part of the present month I received from Mr. 

 Wood the fossil remain which forms the subject of the joint 

 communication from himself and Professor Owen ; and as the 

 discovery of an extinct quadrumanous animal greatly added 

 to the importance of no error being committed with regard to 

 the supposed age of the bed, — for the purpose of setting at 

 rest any doubt that might still have lingered in my own mind, 

 I devoted a morning a few days since to the examination of 

 the spot. After thoroughly exploring the geological features 

 presented by the beds in the immediate neighbourhood of the 

 place, I think the quarry may, without any hesitation, be as- 

 signed to the age of the London clay. Several quarries of 

 crag occur within half a mile distance ; and on crossing the 

 river you have, a little nearer the town, a section of the clay 

 and superimposed crag, similar to that exhibited by the coast 

 line at Walton and Felixstow. 



The annexed sketch, fig. 59, without its being drawn to any 

 very accurate scale, will convey an idea of the probable sec- 

 tion which the beds of clay and crag would exhibit on either 

 side the Deben, the presumed length of the section being 

 three miles. 



