FOSSIL REIN-DEER. 103 



appear to have been opened without regard to any 

 regular plan, wherever it was thought a layer of 

 compact stone could be easily reached.* 



Fossil rein- deer. — Upon entering a quarry at 

 Binstead, the dislocated state of the beds of lime- 

 stone immediately strikes the observer. Vertical 

 and diagonal fissures and chasms, extending in 

 some places to the depth of fifteen feet, are seen 

 traversing the solid rock, and filled with the 

 alluvial loam and clay that form the general sub- 

 soil of this district ; in these deposits bones of a 

 species of horse and ox have been discovered. On 

 a recent visit, I obtained a considerable portion 

 of the skull of a Rein-deer (Cervus tarandus), from 

 clay occupying the bottom of a vertical fissure at 

 the depth of ten feet from the surface. It con- 

 sists of the posterior part of the cranium, and 

 closely resembles a specimen found in a cavern at 

 Berryhead, in Devonshire, and figured by Pro- 

 fessor Owen in British Mammalia ;f the latter is 

 referred by that eminent palaeontologist to the 

 recent species of Rein-deer, chiefly from the proxi- 

 mity of the bases of the antlers to the occipital 



* Quarr Abbey. — In a sequestered valley, within a short distance of Bin- 

 stead, are a few mouldering walls, the only remains of the once celebrated 

 Quarr Abbey, which are generally visited by the tourist : the beauty of the 

 scenery will amply repay the pedestrian geologist for the extension of his 

 walk to this lovely spot. 



t " British Fossil Mammals," p. 181, fig. 198. 



