Intelligence and Miscellaneous Articles. 73 



grains of the mineral, from which were separated ?>'50 grains plum- 

 bago : the iron was precipitated as before ; and after being heated 

 weighed 63 grains, which according to Children indicated 4)4i.lO 

 metallic iron, or by Klaproth's rule 45 90. 



Remarks hy lite Editor {Dr. SiUiman). — There can be no question 

 but the native iron above described is a genuine production of the 

 earth ; and that it holds no connection with meteoric iron. — The 

 mass beats the marks of a true metallic vein, it has smooth sides 

 (saalbandes), and sVnall specks of a blue and white quartz are 

 sticking in it ; nickel, constantlj^ found in the meteoric irons, is 

 absent from this specimen ; and if it were a question whether native 

 iron be a true production of mines, this discovery decides it. — 

 Y. C. Feb. 15th, 1827. 



DISCOVEllY OF FOSSIL HY.ENAS IN KENT, 



A most interesting discovery has, within these few days, been 

 made in tliis county, by John Braddick, Esq. of Boughton Mount, 

 of the fossil remains of an extinct species of hyaena and some other 

 antediluvian animals, in the extensive quarries of Boughton, about 

 three miles south of Maidstone. These quarries appear to have been 

 worked for many centuries ; and there is a tradition that many of 

 the materials of Westminster Abbey, and other ancient buildings 

 in London, were brought from hence ; they have lately been ex- 

 tensively wrought by Mr. Braddick, for the purpose of erecting 

 buildings on his estate. The stone is designated most commonly 

 by the name of Kentish Rag : it consists of a succession of beds of 

 limestone and coarse flint dispersed in irregular thickness through a 

 matrix of sand and sandstone; its geological position is in the lowest 

 region of the green -sand formation immediately above the weald 

 clay. The remains in question consist of the jaws, teeth, and broken 

 portions of the skull, together with bones of the fore and hind legs 

 of a very large hyajna, and a iaw other teeth and bones apparently 

 of the ox and horse. All these were found nearly together, within 

 the space of a few feet in one of the numerous cracks or fissures 

 (locally called vents) that intersect the strata at this place, and are 

 usually from one to twenty feet broad : on the sides of many of these 

 vents are hollow apertures of various sizes, some of which occa- 

 sionally expand themselves into caves : two such caves have lately 

 been destroyed in the quarries on the north side of the valley, at 

 Boughton Mount. The.se fissures or vents cut through the strata 

 from the bottom of the quarries to the surface, and are filled with 

 diluvial loam, interspersed with fragments of the adjacent rocks, and 

 numerous chalk-flints ; these last must have been drifted hither 

 from some distant hills, and have fallen into the fissures at the same 

 time with the loam. This loam at its upper extremity becomes 

 united to that which covers the surface of the quarry and the ad- 

 j icent fields. The bones were discovered at about fifteen feet deep 

 in one of those fissures; and from the manner in which they were 

 scattered amongst the loam and stony fragments, they appear to 

 have been drifted to their present place at the same time witli the 

 diluvial matter, amongst which they lay occupying a position pre- 



Nnv Scrirs. \o\.2.^u.1. JulyMi'l'l. L cisely 



