THE 



WILTSHIRE MAGAZINE. 



" MTTLTOETJM MANIBTTS GRANDE LETATFK ONTTS." — Ovid. 



&\x tljc ^ammaliau §rift of Milteljire aitir 

 it$ ^lOml contents. 



By Mr. CuNircNGTOif, F.G.S. ; 

 Read before the Society at the Annual Meeting at Wanuinster, August, 18S6. 



5N the first number of our Magazine, occurs the question, 

 ^"What remains of Mammalia have been found in the 

 superficial Drift of Wiltshire ?" As no geologist has hitherto 

 given us any information on the subject, I am induced to lay 

 before you such facts as I have been able to collect, with the hope 

 that they may prove interesting. 



Were we to take a geological tour through Wiltshire, we 

 should see a great variety of Rocks or stratified beds, of Chalk, 

 Sand, Clay, Limestone, &c., probably a greater variety than in any 

 other county, for we have not fewer than fourteen or fifteen dis- 

 tinct strata. Wo should find in them vast numbers of shells, corals, 

 and other remains of animals, mostly of marine origin, which in 

 ages of inexpressibly remote antiquity, inhabited this portion of 

 Europe. With these howeycr, we have on the present occasion 

 nothing to do. 



Overlying all these strata, and scattered thinly over the hills, 

 but accumulated sometimes to the thickness of many feet in the 

 valleys, we find what geologists call "Mammalian Drift." The age 

 of this deposit although geologically recent, is when compared 



vol, IV. — NO. XI. K 



