35 



of the Stonehouse and Nailsworth Eailway these beds were 

 extensively opened close to Nailsworth, but scarcely any 

 organisms were found, except a few fresh-water shells, and 

 portions of trees and of water-plants. At Dunkirk Mills, one 

 mile below Nailsworth, these beds have produced a remarkable 

 assemblage of organisms. In digging for foundations of a 

 building, and in deepening the channel of the stream, in the 

 year 1854, these alluvial deposits were well exposed, and I had 

 the opportunity of thoroughly examining them. 



Underneath the surface soil, was a bed, 4 feet in depth, of 

 yellow-brown Clay, which, at the time, Mr. Ltcett concurred 

 with me in considering to consist largely of redistributed Fullers 

 Earth Clays. Below this was a bed, 6 to 9 inches in thickness, 

 of white Clay, with OoHtic Gravel, on the upper surface of which 

 lay the skull of a small deer, with the antlers attached. It was, 

 however, in such a decaying state that only the occipital bone 

 has been preserved. Underneath this a bed of Peat, 4 to 5 feet 

 in depth, was charged with the remains of trees and plants. 

 The trunk of a birch tree, with branches attached, lay in an 

 inclined position in the direction of the stream; portions of 

 trunks of ash, beech, and a wood resembling Scotch fir, and 

 several cones of that tree (Pinus syhestris) j also a red-colovired 

 wood, either alder, or withy, and remains of stems of equisetacea ; 

 numerous hazle nuts, a few whole, but the greater number with 

 holes eaten into them. 



The mammalian remains found in this bed of Peat were yet 

 more interesting. They consisted of a well-preserved jaw and 

 horn of red deer, another larger jaw, and a number of broken 

 antlers and ribs of deer, a tooth of an ox, of a horse, the jaw 

 of a pig, a boar's tusk, and the jaw of a beaver. 



At the time when this assemblage of osseous remains were 

 met with, I had an opportunity of submitting the greater 

 number of them to Professor Owen's examination. Professor 

 Owen most kindly took much interest in them, especially in the 

 larger jaw of deer, which at first he beUeved to have been the 

 jaw of an Irish elk, (Megaceros Rihernicus,) or of some deer 

 nearly as large ; for on comparing it with the skull of the large 



