A Day's ElejjJiant Hunting in Essex. 57 



of some of the tusks, the general evidence shows that the 

 Ilford elephants were rather a small race. 



The British rhinoceroses of the Thames Valley are repre- 

 sented by eighty-six remains, belonging to three species, 

 each of which is distinguished by the character or absence 

 of the bony nasal septum— viz., Bhinoceros megarhinus, 

 Bhinoceros leiJtorUnus , and Bhinoceros tichorhinns. The 

 last-named is characterised by a woolly fleece, like its com- 

 panion the mammoth. The British lion, which recent 

 geology shows to have been no myth, is represented by the 

 lower jaw and a phalanx of the left forefoot. On the Kent 

 side of the river, at Erith and Crayford, some fine canine 

 teeth of the hon have been found ; but these are at present 

 in a private collection at Belvedere. In addition, the 

 Brady collection also includes the hippopotamus, which is 

 found at Grays Thurrock, as well as at Ilford. The rumi- 

 nants, such as the stag, bison, and ox, constitute fully 

 one-half of the collection, numbering more than 500 

 specimens. There are 7 specimens of the great Irish deer 

 {Megaceros hihernicus) and 50 of the red deer. The task of 

 excavating and preserving the Ilford specimens forms a 

 history of itself, and is honourably associated with the name 

 of Mr. Wilham Davies, of the British Museum. The 

 majority of the bones, on being uncovered, were in a most 

 perishable condition, having had all the gelatine dissolved 

 or washed out, which left them in the state of minutely 

 honeycombed mineral skeletons. Hundreds of fragments 

 of a single bone have been restored to their original position 

 by Mr. Davies, and gelatine infused afresh, so that the 

 Brady collection is a marvel of art as well as of nature. 



These are some of the conspicuous trophies of elephant- 

 hunting in the Valley of the Thames that Sir Antonio 

 Brady possesses. They have all been obtained from the 

 pits at Ilford. It is fortunate for those who have but little 

 opportunity of hunting elephants for themselves that these 

 astonishing specimens have fallen into skilful, wise, and 

 generous keeping. Their custodian is one who has made 

 them the mean^ of spreading more widely a knowledge of 

 the extinct zoology of the old Thames Valley. The museum 



