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An Account of some organic Remains found near Brentford, Middlesex. 

 By the late Mr. William Kirby Trimmer. Communicated in a Letter 

 from Mr. James R. Trimmer to the Right Hon. Sir Joseph Banks, 

 Bart. K.B. P.R.S. Read March 4, 1813. [Phil. Trans. 1813, 

 p. 131.] 



The greatest part of this account had, in fact, been drawn up by 

 Mr. William Kirby Trimmer himself, for the purpose of communi- 

 cating it, through the President, to the Society ; so that very little 

 has been added to what he had written, excepting the descriptive 

 explanation of some sketches of several bones and teeth that accom- 

 pany the paper. 



The specimens had been collected at different times from two fields 

 at some distance from each other, that have been dug for the purpose 

 of making bricks. The first of these fields is about half a mile north 

 of the Thames at Kew Bridge, and its surface about twenty -five feet 

 above low water-mark. The first six or seven feet are sandy loam, 

 rather calcareous towards the bottom, but containing no organic re- 

 mains. The next stratum is sandy gravel, a few inches thick, con- 

 taining shells of snails and of fresh-water fish, and a few bones of 

 land animals. Under this is loam of variable thickness, from one to 

 five feet, containing horns, bones, and teeth of oxen and of deer, with 

 some shells also of snails and of fresh- water fish. The fourth stratum 

 is gravel, from two to ten feet in thickness, covered at its surface with 

 occasional thin patches of peat, and always thickest at those parts, 

 and inhaling a disagreeable muddy odour. In this stratum were 

 found teeth and bones of both the African and Asiatic elephant, of 

 the hippopotamus, with bones, horns, and teeth of oxen. One tusk 

 of an elephant measured as much as nine feet three inches, but was 

 broken into small pieces in attempting to remove it. The fifth and 

 main stratum, which follows, is the same blue clay which passes under 

 London and its vicinity to the depth of two hundred feet and more. 



This contains many detached nodules of pyrites, principally at the 

 depth of about twenty feet from its surface, and many of them of con- 

 siderable size. The extraneous fossils in this stratum are entirely 

 marine, with the exception of some fruits and pieces of wood, which, 

 however, appear to have been in the sea, as they are always pierced 

 with Teredines. The shells are those of Nautili, Oysters, Pinnae ma- 

 rinae, and Crabs, with a great variety of smaller shells, and some teeth 

 and bones of fish. 



The second field mentioned by Mr. Trimmer is about a mile to the 

 westward of the former, and at the distance of a mile from the Thames, 

 from which it is elevated about forty feet. The first stratum here is 

 sandy loam, to the depth of eight or nine feet, without any appear- 

 ance of organic remains. Next lies sand, varying in depth from three 

 to eight feet, and in coarseness from fine sand to sandy gravel at its 

 lowest part. In this coarsest part are found a considerable quantity 

 of teeth and bones of the hippopotamus and of the elephant ; horns, 

 bones, and teeth of deer and of oxen ; with shells of river fish. The 



