404 HIPPOPOTAMUS. 



Mr. Parkinson lastly cites the remarkable discovery by 

 Mr. Trimmer of the remains of the Hippopotamus in the 

 fresh-water deposits at Brentford, an account of which 

 Mr. Trimmer afterwards communicated to the Royal So- 

 ciety,* with excellent figures of the principal fossils of the 

 Hippopotamus, and of those of the Mammoth, Rhinoceros, 

 and large Deer therewith associated. These specimens were 

 collected in two brick-fields ; the first about half a mile 

 north of the Thames at Kew Bridge, and with its surface 

 about twenty-five feet above that river at low water. The 

 strata here are, first, sandy loam, from six to seven feet, 

 the lowest two feet slightly calcareous ; this yields no 

 organic remains. Second, sandy gravel a few inches 

 thick, with fluviatile shells and a few bones of land 

 animals. Third, loam, slightly calcareous, from one to 

 five feet ; between this and the next stratum peat fre- 

 quently intervenes in small patches of only a few yards 

 wide and a few inches thick : here bones and horns of 

 Ox and Deer occur, with fresh-water shells. Fourth, 

 gravel containing water ; this stratum varies from two 

 to ten feet in thickness, and is always deepest in the 

 places covered by peat : in it were found the remains of 

 the Mammoth, teeth of the Hippopotamus, and horns 

 and teeth of the Aurochs. This stratum, like the fresh- 

 water deposits at Clacton with similar Mammalian fossils, 

 rests upon the eocene London clay, the fossils of which, 

 with a few exceptions are, as Mr. Trimmer correctly 

 observes, " entirely marine. 1 ' The first stratum in the 

 second brick-field is a sandy loam, calcareous at its lower 

 part, eight or nine feet thick, in which no organic remains 

 were observed. In the second stratum, consisting of sand, 

 becoming coarser towards the lowest part, and ending in 



'Philosophical Transactions,' 1813, p. 131. 



