xVill INTRODUCTION. 
years Mr. F. Harford has prepared for study a large 
number of Fossil Fishes from the Chalk of Kent, lately 
acquired by the British Museum; and Mr. S. J. Hawkins, 
F.G.S., has a private collection of similar specimens 
beautifully extricated from the matrix. Many collectors. 
and museums are indebted to Mr. Joseph Wood for the 
discovery of fine specimens in the Chalk of Kent. 
Eocene Vertebrata are abundant both in the London 
and Hampshire Basins, and most Museums have repre- 
sentative series. In the early part of the century, Bower- 
bank collected from the London Clay of Sheppey, and 
Dixon from the Bracklesham Beds of Sussex and the 
Barton Clay of Hampshire; Mr. Searles. V. Wood, 
F.G.S., author of the Crag Mollusca, explored the cliffs 
of Hordwell; the late Barbara, Marchioness of Hastings, 
chiefly with the help of Mr. Henry Keeping, obtained 
a large series of Reptilian and Mammalian fossils from 
the Upper Eocene of Hordwell and the Hempstead Beds 
of the Isle of Wight ; and the late Earl of Enniskillen and 
Sir Philip Egerton accumulated an extensive collection of 
fish-remains from various formations and localities in both 
basins. All these collections, which comprise the types of 
most species of British Eocene Vertebrata hitherto described, 
have been finally acquired by the British Museum, that of 
Mr. Searles Wood being presented and the others obtained 
by purchase. To Mr. W. H. Shrubsole, F.G.S., of Sheerness,. 
palzontologists are mainly indebted for the numerous dis- 
coveries of Vertebrata in the London Clay of Sheppey 
during the last twenty years, and all his principal specimens 
are also now in the British Museum. 
The Crag Deposits of Suffolk and Norfolk yield the 
remains of Pliocene Vertebrata mingled with those of 
Miocene and Eocene age, derived from earlier strata. Since 
the opening of the phosphate diggings in 1840, large collec- 
tions have been made by the late Messrs. James Baker and 
W. Whincopp, of Woodbridge, these being acquired by 
