THE NEW RAILWAY BETWEEN UPjMINSTER AND ROMFORD. 7 



southern England, and have ceased in Scotland long before they 

 came to an end in northern Russia. 



The fossil remains found at Grays, Ilford, Erith, and Crayford, 

 include those of the Mammoth {Elephas primigenius), a creature 

 whose geological range has given rise to much discussion. Remains 

 of the mammoth have also been found in river deposits higher up 

 the stream in London. The most recent discovery has lately been 

 recorded by Dr. Hicks, in a paper read before the Geological Society 

 on May 25th, 1892. (Q. J. G. S., vol. xlviii., p. 453.)' But as that 

 able geologist inclines to think that the beds overlying the mammoth 

 tusks in Endsleigh Street are of the Glacial Period, from their 

 resemblance to those which underlie the Boulder Clay of Finchley, 

 it becomes necessary to discuss the probable age of these beds in 

 order to ascertain the amount and nature of the evidence for this 

 conclusion For it seems to me that they are simply river deposits, 

 which, from their surface being only eighty feet or less above 

 Ordnance Datum, are in all probability decidedly later in date than 

 the river gravel of Hornchurch, which unconformably overlies the 

 Boulder Clay there. 



The excavations which were, so fortunately for geologists, 

 brought under the notice of Dr. Hicks, were made in Endsleigh and 

 other streets on the southern side of Endsleigh Gardens, south of 

 Euston Square. The sections were much alike as regards their 

 general character. On an eroded surface of London Clay lay gravel, 

 resting on the gravel was sand, and, above the sand, clay which con- 

 tained the calcareous nodules called " race." The surface consisted 

 of "made ground." All the strata mentioned were very variable in 

 thickness. In addition to the beds just named a thin stratum of 

 dark clayey loam with seeds was met with below the gravel here and 

 there, where the surface of the London Clay was more concave than 

 usual, and in this clayey loam the remains of the Mammoth were 

 found, at a depth of twenty-two feet from the surface, and a height 

 of sixty feet above Ordnance Datum. In this clayey loam Mr. 

 Clement Reid recognised the seeds of plants usually seen in ponds 

 and marshy places, and which, in the present day, range from the 

 Arctic Circle to Southern Europe. 



The contours of the surface in a town are frequently so obscured 

 by winding streets, and a lack of open spaces, that it becomes impos- 



2" On the Discovery of Mammoth and other remains in Endsleigh Street, and in sections 

 exposed in Endsleigh Gardens, Gordon Street, Gordon Square, and Tavistock Square, London." 

 By Henry Hicks, M.D., F.R.S. 



