A HISTORY OF NORFOLK 



described from the Upper Pliocene beds of Italy, and easily distinguish- 

 able by the low crowns of its cheek-teeth. Remains of extinct elephants 

 occur abundantly in the Norfolk Forest Bed, although there is no 

 evidence that any of these are referable to the mammoth, which is so 

 common in the more recent deposits. The Forest Bed species are the 

 southern elephant [Elephas meridionalis) and the straight-tusked elephant 

 {E. antiquus) ; the former attaining considerably larger dimensions than 

 the mammoth, and having molars with fewer and smoother and more 

 expanded plates of enamel. It is, however, somewhat remarkable that 

 some of the elephant molars from the Forest Bed exhibit characters 

 more or less intermediate between those of the mammoth on the one 

 hand and those of the two species above-named on the other ; and there 

 accordingly seems a probability that the evolution of the mammoth may 

 have been in progress during this epoch. 



Turning to the smaller mammals, presumptive evidence of the 

 existence of the squirrel [Sciurus vulgaris) at the epoch under consideration 

 is afforded by the frequent occurrence of gnawed fir-cones in the Forest 

 Bed ; this evidence being supported by the discovery at Ostend, near 

 Bacton, of an arm-bone (humerus) of this species in deposits probably 

 belonging to the Forest Bed group. That the beaver [Castor Jiber) was a 

 Forest Bed animal is attested by the discovery of its remains previously 

 to 1846, as well as by others obtained at a much later date. Much 

 more remarkable is the extinct Forest Bed beaver (T'rogontherium cuvieri), 

 first known by a specimen from a sandy deposit on the borders of the 

 Sea of Azov, and subsequently recognized by Sir R. Owen from the 

 Forest Bed. Whether the water vole [Microtus amphibius) is represented 

 in these deposits is uncertain, but of land voles, or field mice, there 

 occur the bank vole [M. glareolus), a variety of the common field vole 

 [M. agrestis intermedius), the Continental field vole {M. arvalis), and 

 probably the Siberian vole (M. grega/is) . Remains of the common long- 

 tailed field mouse {Mus syhaticus) have also been obtained at West 

 Runton. The list of small mammals is completed by the mole [Talpa 

 europaa), the common shrew {Sorex vulgaris), probably the pigmy shrew 

 [S. minutus), and the Russian desman {Myogale moschata). The occur- 

 rence of the last-named long-snouted aquatic species is very remarkable, 

 since it is now restricted to that part of Russia lying between the Don 

 and the Volga ; in the Forest Bed its remains have been met with at 

 Bacton, West Runton, and Beeston near Cromer. 



Remains of whales and dolphins, so common in the Crag deposits 

 of Suffolk and Essex, are rare in the Norfolk Forest Bed. The occur- 

 rence of the sperm whale {Physeter macrocephalus) is indicated by a tooth; 

 and a vertebra from near Cromer belongs to a large rorqual, or finner- 

 whale, perhaps indistinguishable from the living Balcenoptera musculus. 

 Two other vertebras from East Runton and Pakefield are referable to 

 the killer-whale [Orca gladiator), and a fourth, from Mundesley, 

 apparently pertains to the false killer [Pseudorca crassidens). Other 

 Forest Bed cetaceans are the Arctic narwhal (Monodon monoceros), the 



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