NOTE ON ELEPHAS MERIDIONALIS. 13 



its favourable western aspect. The sand scraped out attracted the 

 attention of a passer-by, who was aware of the value of sand in a 

 district in which this material is wholly absent. A facetious friend, 

 referring to the first discoverer of the sand-bed, said " No 

 mouse before this gained such laurels not mus ridiculus, 

 but mus fossor prceclarus should be its title." Two of the four 

 molars above referred to are in the possession of Lady Michel ; the 

 other two, a lower molar and part of an upper one, are in the 

 Salisbury Museum. These last were described in " The Monthly 

 Magazine" of May, 1814, thus: "Two animals, to all appearance 

 coiled up like a serpent, which fell to pieces when being handled, 

 and other matters which the workmen called hands, somewhat 

 petrified (fangs of molars ?). It appears like the upper jaw of 

 an animal, the bars of the mouth petrified, but no teeth visible." 

 Doctor Shorto had a clearer view of their value and character than 

 the writer of the above extract, to whom he addressed the following 

 letter : " I was at Dewlish last week and procured some of the 

 matters taken from the pit on the side of the hill. They are the bones 

 of Elephants." The possibility of the occurrence of Elephas meridio- 

 nafis elsewhere in England is hinted at by Doctor Falconer in the 

 case of a molar described and figured by Parkinson in his British 

 Fossil Mammalia from Staffordshire. "Supposing," says he, "Par- 

 kinson's record to be exact, it would in no way surprise him if 

 teeth of Elephas meridionalis did not turn up among the remains 

 found in the Valley of the Avon." 



This remarkable and exceptional Dorsetshire deposit stands above 

 the village of Dewlish at an altitude of 90 feet on the siimmit of 

 a hill, which spreads out eastward into an undulatory ridge, look- 

 ing north and south. It is about a mile broad, and forms the 

 watershed of the Milton and Dewlish rivulets ; the former being 

 a tributary to the river Stour, the latter to the river Piddle. The 

 face of the hill, as has been already noticed, looks westward, and 

 is extremely steep at an angle of not less than 70. The river, 

 which flows more than 50 yards from the base of the hill, shews 

 no traces of having at any time filled the valley, there being a 



