and other large Mammalia, found in Norfolk. 4 1 



they are collected, and are sold to the visiters of Cromer, 

 and distributed over, the kingdom, or deposited in private 

 collections in Norfolk. It has already been mentioned that 

 numerous specimens were destroyed before their value was 

 known. 



The total amount of these elephantine and other remains 

 recently found is very great ; but it is impossible to form a 

 conjecture respecting the numbers that have been turned up 

 by the tides and destroyed in preceding ages. It appears 

 highly probable that flocks of elephants have lived and perished 

 at no great distance from the land where their remains are 

 now so abundantly distributed : but I must, for the present, 

 postpone my remarks on this subject and on the Norfolk crag, 

 and shall conclude with some observations on the state of 

 preservation in which these fossil remains are found. 



The bones and grinders thrown on the coast by the tides 

 are, as might be expected, often more or less waterworn, par- 

 ticularly the vertebral bones : the teeth are frequently very 

 little abraded. The remains from the oyster-beds of Haps- 

 borough, which, I believe, are chiefly gravel, are often in 

 high preservation, and are very hard, from the mineral matter 

 with which they are penetrated. It is well known that organic 

 remains of all kinds generally receive a colour from the stra- 

 tum in which they are imbedded ; thus the bones from the 

 gypsum and gypseous marl of Montmartre are almost always 

 nearly white, while those in the dark lias clay are black. The 

 grinders from Hapsborough gravel-bank have generally a 

 reddish-brown colour, derived from the oxide of iron in the 

 gravel : they have, also, frequently a glossy kind of varnish 

 on the surface. The remains imbedded in blue clay have 

 commonly a blueish-grey colour, and are sometimes penetrated 

 by pyrites, and have undergone a degree of chemical decom- 

 position. In some specimens, the colour approaches to dark 

 or blackish-brown. Some of the bones are still porous, the gela- 

 tine and other animal matter has been removed, and the place 

 has not been supplied by the substitution of mineral matter : 

 other bones are extremely hard. The specific gravity of a 

 polished portion of a fossil grinder I compared with that of a 

 portion of a polished recent grinder from India. Both speci- 

 mens were very compact, and appeared to have been cut from 

 grinders of nearly the same size. 



Specific gravity of the grinder from India, 2'08 



of the fossil grinder from Cromer, 2*73 



It thus appears, that the fossil tooth had gained an accession 

 of weight of nearly one third. 



