The Zoologist — May, 1874. 3995 



Fossils from Recent Deposits in tlic Valley of the Thames. — During 

 some recent extensive draining operations, under the Health of Towns Act, 

 at Reading, a trench was carried for nearly a quarter of a mile through 

 some low meadows between the rivers Kennet and Thames, near their con- 

 fluence. The soil for the first ten or twelve feet was peatj, diversified with beds 

 of blue and yellow clay. Part of the trench followed the course of a small 

 brook or drain, and this portion was cut through peat and shell-marl. All 

 the superficial strata rested on the Thames gravel, and this on the chalk. 

 An immense number of bones were turned up during this excavation, but few 

 of these have unfortunately been preserved ; but fi'om the accounts of eye- 

 witnesses, I believe at least one perfect human skeleton and several skulls were 

 exhumed ; and at one point below the level of the bed of the Kennet, lying 

 in the gravel beneath the shell-marl, a curious implement was found by 

 Mr. Mitchener, of Staines, consisting of the burr and brow-antler of a small 

 deer, with about an inch of the beam attached, neatly cut off and apparently 

 hollowed out for the insertion of a handle. It is suggested that this was 

 used as a salmon-gaff. A similar implement, but larger, has since been 

 obtained from the gravel at Egham associated with an elephant's molar and 

 the remains of a large ox : I am told that the point of the antler in the 

 second specimen has evidently been sharpened. The beam of an antler of 

 the red deer in my possession is covered with tool-marks and the tines have 

 been carefully cut off and their stumps rounded ; I think this must have 

 served as the handle to some tool or weapon, for the parts where the hands 

 would naturally grasp it are smooth and bright. I do not know from what 

 depth this was obtained, it having been rescued from the stores of a bone 

 merchant, to whom most of the fossils found their way, I fear. The bones 

 of a fore leg were found, which Mr. Jones, Geological Professor at Oxford, 

 attributes to Bos primigenius, and a jaw, with teeth, of the same. The 

 " navvies " spoke of these being parts of an entire skeleton, most of which 

 was undistui'bed. Mr. W. Palmer, of Pleading, intends attempting to 

 recover the rest of these bones. No perfect skeleton of Bos primigenius is 

 to be found in any British museum. Remains of the smaller Bos longifrons 

 were abundant ; I have seen three horn-cores turned up at one stroke of 

 the spade : some tolerably perfect crania were found, but not preserved. 

 According to the report of the navvies a skeleton of this or of some small 

 ox was found not far from that of the larger species before referred to. 

 Bones which Mr. Waterhouse, of the British Museum, attributes to the 

 following animals, were brought to light : — wolf, dog, horse, goat ; and the 

 fragment of the jaws of an immense deer, which he doubtfully identifies 

 with Megacerus hibernicus. I found remains of the fox, boar and red deer : 

 horns of the latter of a large size were not uncommon ; a fragment in my 

 possession measures eleven inches round the burr. The skull of a horse 

 (male), — and apparently that of an animal four years old, for the " mark " is 



