Freshwater Deposit containing Mammalian Remains, 261 



in Calabria, 1793. Its strong similarity, indeed, to those 

 productions of subterranean agency, the volcano and earth- 

 quake ; the current of lava at times moving rapidly forwards, 

 at others more slowly ; here rushing across a river, blocking 

 up its channel, and forming a bridge for the stream to wear 

 its way through afterwards in the course of ages; there enter- 

 ing houses, overwhelming whole cities, and preserving for 

 centuries uninjured, statues, domestic utensils, blocks of 

 stone, &c. ; must be apparent, I think, at once to every one 

 who reads the above account: but the resemblance, of course, 

 is merely manifest in a few of the effects, there being not the 

 slightest connexion in their origin ; the one being caused, the 

 wisest among us know not exactly how, the other being evi- 

 dently and solely owing to a superabundance of water and 

 putrid matter. 



To furnish some idea of the ravages of this moving bog, I 

 add, that no less than forty men had been employed for 

 several days, when I visited it on Thursday, and had not suc- 

 ceeded in removing it entirely away from the road. This, as 

 may be supposed, occasioned considerable inconvenience to 

 the country ; the mails and coaches to and from Londonderry 

 and Belfast having to go round by a circuitous route. 



Kenmare, Co. Kerry \ Ireland, Dec. 28. 1835. 



Art. VIII. On a Fresh-water Deposit, containing Mammalian 

 Remains, recently discovered at Grays, Essex. By John 

 Morris, Esq. 



This deposit, which is situated about a quarter of a mile 

 to the east of the village, has been long worked for the manu- 

 facture of bricks; but it is only since some recent and deeper 

 excavations have been made in the pits, that the peculiar 

 fossil remains belonging to them have been discovered. The 

 deposit, which extends east and west, and about a quarter of 

 a mile in width, fills up a valley between two ridges of irre- 

 gular height; that to the north being part of a long range of 

 chalk hills, extending from Purfleet for seven or eight miles 

 parallel to the river ; and that to the south consisting of 

 rubbly chalk with irregularly disposed flints, about 30 ft. high, 

 which you pass over in proceeding from the village to the 

 brick-field. 



The deposit being worked in three different pits, an oppor- 

 tunity is afforded of examining its stratification for more than 

 half a mile. The section of the first, or western, pit* at the 



u S 



