AN ANCIENT PORTLAND INTERMENT. 235 



but was unable to proceed very far as it was filled with the 

 obstructing materials. The horizontal position of the beds will 

 help us to arrive at the solution of the origin of these fissures, that 

 they were not occasioned by violent dislocations, but by the 

 yielding character of the basement-bed. Unfortunately, I missed 

 the opportunity of examining the fissure until all traces of it had 

 been obliterated ; had it been otherwise I should have probably 

 found that the beds had been lowered on one side of it, while the 

 others remained unmoved. The human remains consist of portions 

 of four persons a man, a woman, and two young people. I 

 submitted the fragments of three of their skulls to General Pitt- 

 Rivers. Several pieces were missing. The csphalic-index could 

 not be ascertained with any accuracy. The nose of one was 

 prominent. The chins were shallow, but not otherwise badly 

 formed. My friend and fellow member, Mr. Eichardson, fitted 

 many of the bones together, and obtained as accurate a measure- 

 ment as the scanty materials afforded. The height of the man was 

 about 5ft. 2in., that of the woman 4ft. 8in. In addition to the 

 skulls and other portions of the skeletons, his list includes the 

 right and left scapula of one individual, the right clavicles of two 

 others, the left clavicle of another, also a few vertebrse, ribs, 

 carpel-bones, and phalangals. The animal remains were submitted 

 to Mr. Lydekker, whose recently-published "Catalogue of the 

 Fossil Mammalia, Reptilia, and Amphibia in the British Museum " 

 is a sufficient guarantee for the accuracy of his determination. 

 A femur, two tibiae, two metatarsals of a ruminant (possibly a 

 roe-buck), the tusk of a wild boar, parts of the upper and lower-jaw, 

 and rib of a young fox or dog, various parts of the skeleton of a 

 field-vole (Arvicola arvensis), part of the vomer with its character- 

 istic teeth of the gilt-head Chrysoplirys or Sea-Bream, also two 

 marine shells Corbula gibba (one valve), and Patella vulgata. 

 The land-shells were represented by Zonites alliaria, Z. crystallinus, 

 Z. purus, Helix ericetorum, H. hispida, Helix nemoralis, H. 

 pulchella, var. costata, H. rotundata, Vertigo edentata; also a few 

 fragments of cuttle fish. Mr. Richardson, to whom I am also 



