476 



CERVUS. 



have not yet been able to ascertain : and alongside of the 

 latter relic was part of the under jaw of a horse ; an antler, 

 probably of the red-deer ; and also the greater part of a 

 fine Roman urn of a dark colour. 



" It appears to me that there was an ancient dyke at 

 the spot, and that the rill of water which ran into the 

 Severn having in ages past been diverted into another 

 channel, the dyke became gradually filled up by the allu- 

 vium which is occasionally deposited upon the plains by 

 the floods of the river, and thereby all the relics were 

 buried at the great depth at which they lay ; and in proof 

 of this, the stratum on which they rested was muddy grit, 

 such as we find at the bottom of water-courses. It would 

 have taken an immense time for these relics to have been 

 buried upon the surface of a level plain at the depth they 

 were, for I have shown in my before-mentioned work that 

 the alluvium upon the level plains on the borders of the 

 Severn has only accumulated about four feet since the 

 Roman time." 



Mr. Allies informs me that a coin of Marcus Aurelius 

 was found at the depth of about thirty feet, just by where 

 the south gates of the lock stand. The antlers of the large 

 Stag, of which I received figures, have the expanded and 

 branched summits characteristic of the ' crowned Hart f 

 the breadth of this expansion is not less than eighteen 

 inches ; the total length of the antler, in a straight line, 

 is two feet. That of a second antler is two feet seven 

 inches. Mr. Dixon, of Worthing, has found antlers of 

 Red-deer, with Roman and British antiquities, in the super- 

 ficial deposits at Selsey and Bracklesham. An almost en- 

 tire skeleton of a large Cervus ElapJius has been found in 

 sand several feet beneath the present bed of the Ouse, in 

 the Lewes levels. 



