46 



to the occupation of Bath by the Romans there is no doubt a body 

 of fresh water was present over the area of the future city, since in 

 the extensive Roman foundations opened up on the site of the 

 Royal Hotel, and also at other spots, they are seen to have gone 

 down into stratified beds of fresh water alluvium, containing 

 innumerable shells, both land and fresh water, and also fresh water 

 plants. 



The thin laminse into which these shelly marls are divided, the 

 enormous number of the shells of all stages of gi'owth they contain, 

 point to a quiescent state of the water, and further indicate a 

 lengthened period for their accumulation, during the whole of 

 which the basin must have been occupied by a fresh water river or 

 lake. The great delicacy of many of the shells proves that they 

 could not have been brought from a distance. Seeds of the fresh 

 water Chara are abundant, fresh water crustaceans of the order 

 Entomostraca of several species, and occasionally, though not in 

 good condition, the elytra of insects. The land shells found with 

 them have been brought down from the adjoining hills during 

 seasons of flood. These indicate a temperature such as the present, 

 nearly all the species being now living. 



The chronology of geology must necessarily be imperfect. It is, 

 however, very likely that the pre-historic alluvial beds I have just 

 noticed are contemporaneous with the lake dwellings of Switzer- 

 land, and go back either to the stone age or to that of bronze. It 

 is true that no lake dwellings have been, or probably ever will be 

 found at Bath, but it is a strong point in confirmation of this view 

 that the has pj-imiffenins and the bos longifroiis which lived here at 

 the time of the deposition of our beds are found also in the Swiss 

 lake dwellings, and were killed by the inhabitants for food. 



Mr. Henry Woodward mentions that there was found in the 

 peat, near Cambridge, a fine head of the hos primigenius in which 

 a stone celt was found broken short off in the forehead. In 

 several skulls of the 60s longifrons from the Bath beds the fracture 

 of frontEvl bones shews that they have possibly been killed in a 

 similar mginner. 



In connexion with the Royal Hotel section there is a very 

 peculiar accumulation under the Historic Period. I refer to 



