Miscellaneous. 325 



them it might naturally be inferred that the nearest land was several 

 miles distant, namely, that of the hypogene rocks which bound the 

 basin of the Connecticut. Now, the land that caused the sea-beach, 

 Mr. Lyell says, must have been formed of the same sandstone which 

 was then in the act of accumulating, in the same manner as where 

 deltas are advancing upon the sea. 



In a postscript, Mr. Lyell states, that subsequently to writing the 

 paper he had read the luminous report of Mr. Vanuxem on the Or- 

 nithichnites described by Prof. Hitchcock, and though it agrees in 

 substance with his own account in some particulars, yet that he has 

 left his notice as it stood. 



MISCELLANEOUS. 



ON THE PEARL OYSTER OF CEYLON. 



" It may interest some of your conchological acquaintances to know 

 that Avicula radiata of Leach is the far-famed Pearl Oyster of Cey- 

 lon. I have got plenty of all ages destined for the Belfast Museum. 

 I send you a sketch" 1 of the fry which roves about near the surface of 

 the sea ; it in scarcely any respect resembles the full-grown shell." 

 Vide Nat. Misc., vol. i. pi. 43. — Extract from R. Templetons, Esq., 

 R.A., letter from Colombo in Ceylon, May 19, 1842. 



FOSSIL REMAINS IN ESSEX. 



To the Editors of the Annals of Natural History. 



Gentlemen, — Fossil remains of Mammalia have been met with 

 so often in the county of Essex that their occurrence now almost 

 ceases to excite surprise, but a large portion of a fossil tusk of the 

 elephant has very recently been found at Grays Thurrock, of di- 

 mensions so large as to favour the impression, that the animal to 

 which it formerly belonged must have arrived at the maximum size 

 of those giants of the animal kingdom. 



This fine fossil in its present state is two feet eleven inches in 

 length ; it is broken off at both ends, and appears to have formed 

 the middle third part of the tusk in length. At its larger extremity 

 it is 19^ inches in circumference, and when it is considered that no 

 part of the cavity forming the alveolus can be seen, that portion 

 being broken off and with it more of the larger end of the tusk pro- 

 bably ; — bearing this in mind, we may fairly infer that the tusk was 

 quite as long as our conclusions warrant in drawing from the facts 

 before us. 



At its smaller end it is broken off at that part which gives us fifteen 

 inches circumference, and as to its length, by following the two outer 

 curvatures of this fragment to a point, these lines meet at a distance 

 of about three feet from the smaller circumference ; and if we allow 

 little more than two feet from its larger end for the alveolus and other 

 missing portions, we then have a length of between eight and nine 

 feet when this tusk was whole. 



* The figure will be given in one of the Plates of our present volume. — Ed. 



