recently discovered at Grays, Esse jr. 263 



4 oz., and another nearly as much * ; remains of the hippopo- 

 tamus ; horns of the ox and deer ; a canine tooth of the bear; 

 and numerous other bones, more or less perfect. They still 

 contain much phosphate of lime, but are strongly impregnated 

 with iron. These remains are not confined to the shelly bed, 

 being sometimes found, though rarely, in the beds above and 

 below it. In the upper part of the blue clay the remains of a 

 tree were found. 



In the third, or eastern, brick-field, the upper beds thin off, 

 the brown sandy clay coming within 7 ft. of the surface, and 

 is worked to the depth of 15 ft.: the lower part contains 

 numerous fragments of shells, with some few layers of more 

 perfect ones. Still further to the east, the whole of the beds 

 thin off, and, apparently, disappear beneath the marsh. 



On the upper surface of the general section there is very 

 little accumulation of diluvial gravel ; the gravelly debris, 

 with comminuted shells, being found beneath the loam and 

 sandy clay, in the western pit, but does not appear in the 

 eastern, the shelly fragments being there mixed with the fine 

 sand. The strata have a general inclination of 15° to the 

 north. The layers of the loam and sandy clay appear to be 

 made up of small flat fragments of shells, arranged parallel to 

 each layer, the laminae varying from eighteen to twenty in 

 number in the thickness of an inch. The sandy beds present 

 an appearance of false stratification : and it is not uncommon 

 to find horizontal alternating with wavy and transverse layers. 

 The shells are irregularly distributed: some genera are more 

 abundant at one spot than another ; the TXnio and A'nodon 

 occurring in the blue clay of the second pit; while, in the first, 

 the unios are mingled with the other Testacea of the sandy 

 bed. The lignite is also variable in its position, sometimes 

 dividing the shelly beds, and at others occurring below them. 

 Besides the occurrence of chalk nodules on the loam and 

 gravel beds, they are found much smaller, though more nu- 

 merous, sometimes containing a chalk fossil, in the shelly 

 beds ; where I have also detected two species of coral, pro- 

 bably belonging to the same stratum. 



Similar deposits, containing bones, associated with shells, 

 have been found at Stutton, Suffolk, and Copford, Essex, 

 mentioned in VII. 274, 275,, and VII. 436—438. The 

 same genera of shells are found in the beds at Grays as at 



* One of them is said to be in the British Museum, the other in the pos- 

 session of Mr. Hemming, the proprietor of the brick-field. At first, the 

 bones were considered by the men valueless; but, after the proprietor's 

 attention had been called to them, there were enough collected together 

 to make a cartload. 



u 4 



