VOL. XXII.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 607 



with the osteology of Dr. Mullins in his anatomical account of the elephant burnt 

 at Dublin, &c. I find it perfectly to agree with its os humeri, not only as to 

 outward appearance, but to measure also; whence we may conclude, that these 

 were the bones, &c. of some elephant, rather than of any other animal. 



And it seems to me also, that those teeth and bones mentioned by Mr. 

 Somner, N° 27 1, might have been the teeth and bones of some elephant, rather 

 than of the hippopotamus : and that, 1st, in respect to the place ; for, as Mr. 

 Camden says in his Britannia, p. 197, speaking of Chilham in Kent, of which 

 this Chartham is a neighbouring village, in the same down, and on the same 

 River Stowre, that it is a current report among the inhabitants that Julius Caesar 

 encamped there, in his second expedition against the Britains ; and thence it 

 was called Julham, as if one should say, Julius's station or house. It appears 

 further, Britan. p. 208, that Rhatupiae, near the present Sandwich, was the 

 place of Claudius's landing in Britain ; and that through this down was his 

 nearest way to the Thames, whither he was going. So that it is highly probable, 

 that during the stay, the passing, or repassing of these Roman armies, through 

 these downs, one of their elephants might die, and be buried there. 2dly, By 

 the teeth themselves, compared with the descriptions of Dr. Mullins, Anatomy, 

 p. 40, you find them the very same as to breadth and depth, &c. and tlieir being 

 molares. 3dly, and lastly, to solve that great difficulty, which obliged Mr. Somner 

 to imagine this down to have been an aestuary, that his hippopotamus might 

 therein dig itself a grave; otherwise, says he, how should these bones be found 

 at such a depth ? for who with reason can imagine that any land animal could 

 ever have had at first so deep a burial ? But it is easily explained why these 

 bones should now be found at such depths, if we consider the alteration or rising 

 of the valleys, by the continual washing down of the loose earth or soil, by the 

 rains and snows, from the adjacent hills, and by the annual rollings of the grass, 

 sedge, &c. growing upon it : for proof of which, take the following instance, 

 from Dr. Plot's Nat. Hist, of Staftbrdshire, chap, vi. pp. 48, 220, speaking of 

 a moss, &c. wherein was found a parcel of coins of Edward IV. of England (sup- 

 posed to be lost in a purse or cloth, now rotten away) at 18 feet deep, which 

 being about 200 years since, by computation this moss grew about one foot in 

 1 1 years, or one inch per annum and nearly-j-'-j-th. Divers other instances of 

 alteration are mentioned in the same history. Now it will be easily granted, 

 that if this moss grew or advanced itself above its former surface 18 feet in 200 

 years, then this vale or down might be raised 17 feet in almost 17OO years. 



