372 IGHTHAM. [1893. 



panied by fellow-geologists to these sites, occasionally 

 Mr Topley being his companion, and occasionally Sir 

 John Evans. Latterly Professor Rupert Jones and 

 the Rev. R. Ashington Bullen went with him to review 

 new ground, Mr Harrison being seldom absent from 

 any working party. 



The discovery by Mr W. J. Lewis Abbott, F.G.S., 1 

 of ossiferous fissures in the valley of the Shode, near 

 Ightham, was naturally of great interest to Prestwich ; 

 and his friend Mr Abbott did not fail to carry to Darent- 

 Hulme the spoils from the fissures for our geologist's 

 examination. They included many mammalian remains, 

 as well as those of birds, reptiles, &c., the small bones 

 of rodents being innumerable. The last visit made by 

 Prestwich to these fissures was in 1893, when he was 

 accompanied by Mr Abbott and Mr Harrison. 



J. Prestwich to Rev. 0. Fisher. 



DARENT-HULME, SHOREHAM, 12th August 1893. 



MY DEAE FISHER, I am very much obliged to you for the 

 corrections you have made in my MS. With two or three 

 exceptions, I have gladly availed myself of them all. "What, 

 however, I particularly wanted your opinion about is whether 

 I have put correctly the opinions of such physicists as Lord 

 Kelvin, Tait, and [G. H.] Darwin. Am I right in saying their 

 estimate of the earth's age is now from fifteen to twenty million 

 years (I know it has varied greatly), and the thickness of the 

 crust from 1000 to 2500 miles? 



I wish I could have gone more fully into the subject, but I 

 suppose a magazine would not care for too long an article. . . . 



1 The Ossiferous Fissures in the Valley of the Shode, near Ightham, 

 Kent. By W. J. Lewis Abbott, F.G.S. ; Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc., 1894, 

 vol. 1. p. 171. The Vertebrate Fauna collected by Mr Lewis Abbott from 

 the Fissure near Ightham, Kent. By E. T. Newton, F.K.S., F.G.S. ; ibid., 

 p. 188. 



