Journal of Proceedings. xxxi 



Africa, into the rich valleys of the Thames country. And this they 

 actually did, the Mammoth and Rhinoceros coming from the east, and 

 the Hippopotamus and Southern Elephant from the south, there being 

 then no Straits of Gibraltar to bar their migration. Whole herds of 

 the great Pachyderms and Deer, which once lived in the wooded wilds 

 of Essex, had died and left no trace of their existence, their bones 

 being devoured by the Hysenas, or gradually dissolved by exposure 

 and decay ; but the carcases of others had been swept into the rivers, 

 where — entombed in the sand and mud — they were safely preserved 

 for thousands of years ; and now to-day, when these ancient 

 rivers have disappeared, and we dig down into their sandy 

 beds as we do this afternoon at Ilford, we find these wonder- 

 ful remains commemorating a vanished past. Another map shows 

 where may be found the physical memorials of the Mammoth period 

 in Essex — the Moraines of the Essex glaciers, as they may be seen to- 

 day up the hills at Epping, Theydon Bois, Havering, &c. Referring 

 to the Great Glacial Submergence and its traces in Essex, the speaker 

 quotes the important investigations of Mr. Searles Wood, who, he 

 assures us, has found on the Essex hills the old beach line of the 

 Glacial Sea at the time the chalky fossiliferous Boulder Clay at 

 Epping, and elsewhere, was deposited. At that time the sea occupied 

 the Thames Valley up to about the level of 150 feet at the part 

 opposite the Roding Valley, and about 180 feet at Cheshunt. 

 To the east of this the level falls, but to the west it rises, so that at 

 Stewkley, in Oxfordshire, it is nearly 400 feet, at Birmingham 500 feet, 

 and so on further west until in Wales a submergence of more than 

 1,600 feet is reached. 



Mr. Walker's remarks are listened to with great interest by us all, 

 standing around him in the pit, not to speak of the crowd of village 

 urchins, and the groups of more attentive navvies, who (neglectful of 

 their Saturday half-holiday) lean on shovel and pick, with their wives 

 and daughters from neighbouring cottages, to "hear tell" of the 

 fashion of the earth they delve in, and how 



" Britain last, at Heaven's command. 

 Arose from out the azure main." 



He concludes by a kind of apology to those who may hail from more 

 romantic scenery in England — from Derbyshire and Devonshire — for 

 the very unpicturesque country about Ilford, but humorously vindi- 

 cates the equality of the flat river gravel district of the Thames, in 

 point of palaeontological value and interest and geological romance, 

 with the country of Hyaena dens and limestone caves. 



We then break out into the London Road to visit the pits in the 

 field formerly known as Curtis's, but now owned by a Mr. Judson. As 

 we stand on the precipice of untouched earth, and look down into the 



