110 



every bed from tlie lower lias to the gi-eat oolite, indicating clearly those 

 from which its materials have been derived, it contains the bones of 

 Elephants, Rhinocerosses, and Hippopotami, some of which are now laid 

 before you, and that for the most part in the Gloucester end of the vale 

 it rests immediately upon the denuded beds of the lias. 



The bones of these great Pachydermata, more or less abundantly 

 scattered over the area of the deposit, are sufficient to prove the existence 

 of these animals, when the said deposit took place in the coimtry of 

 which it is the detritus. 



These bones have been found fossil in Pleistocene freshwater deposits 

 at Grays, Erith, &c., as before mentioned, associated with the identical 

 species of shells, which we have submitted for your examination, in 

 precisely similar condition. 



At Gannecot quarry, near Stroud, as shown in the section at 3, on the 

 left underlying about twenty feet of this gravel, immediately upon the lias, 

 and below the elephant bones produced, some of these same shells are 

 found, with many others, all of which belong to species now living in 

 the district, and are supjilementary as regards necessarily co-existent con- 

 ditions, to those already described, as will appear from the following list.* 



LIST OF SHELLS FROM BELOW THE GRAVEL. 



Ancylus fluviatilis ... ... Sweden, Sicily. 



Lininmus auricularius 



„ pereger ... ... ... Sweden, Dalmatia. 



„ truncatulus 



Helix nemoralis . . . 

 2ua luhrica 

 Pupa muscorum ... ... ... Germany, Italy. 



Zonites excavatus 



The Limnoeads and Ancylus are still as naturally looked for in the 

 stream below us, as the Helicidos, &c., would be sought upon the hill-sides 

 or elsewhere. Taking these facts then into consideration, with the 

 presence of human implements in undisturbed beds of apparently like 

 antiquity, we believe them to be as good jDroofs of the contemporaneity 

 of man with the great extinct pachyderms, as any which can be deduced 

 from the position of the world-famous flints of Abbeville. So much has 

 been written about these, and so many questions of deep scientific interest 

 depend upon the establishment of their ap^Droximate age, that we con- 

 sidered it to be a duty to lay the present specimens, and what we 

 believe to be the facts connected with them, before you. 



* This must be regarded as by no means complete, as the shells named in it are the product 

 of a few hours search ; it might doubtless therefore, with little labour, be greatly extended. 



