528 Correspondence—Ur. W. H. Dalton. 
POST-GLACIAL. 
Sir.—In your August Number, my friend and colleague Mr. jel 
B. Woodward reasserts that Elephas antiquus, E. primigenius, etc., 
are uot known from beds whose age is certainly Post-Glacial. 
Regarding the valley of the Thames as entirely posterior to the 
latest trace of glacial conditions in Britain, I must regard the lower 
terraces, which contain the fauna in question, as very late Post- 
Glacial deposits, and I think that some of those in the Colchester 
district, certainly that at Lexden, are still more recent. 
But leaving the Thames valley out of the question, the Colne 
valley and the Lexden deposit therein settle the age of the fauna 
we have to deal with. The country consists of London Clay, with 
a thin irregular coating of gravel (Middle Glacial) and an upper 
coating of the Chalky Boulder Clay, to which formation none who 
have duly examined it assign other than a marine origin. The 
Colne valley cuts through the Glacial beds into the London Clay, 
and its bottom is occupied, as usual, with alluvial meadows. A 
few feet above the alluvium, there occur at intervals, on either side 
of the valley, remnants of older alluvial terraces, consisting, lke 
the modern ones, of gravel, loam, peat, etc. 
That at Lexden, at not more than 40 feet above the present river- 
bed, furnished remains of the two Elephants named above, and of 
insects indicating a warmer climate than the present. The Chalky 
Boulder Clay is to my mind the last scene of the Glacial Period in 
Britain, the Hessle Clay being, so to speak, the last speech in that 
scene, so that the Colne valley is wholly Post-Glacial, still more so 
its deposits. Paleolithic Man lived on its slopes and doubtless slew 
the deer and other game, whilst the burné stone found in the Lexden 
brickearth seems to indicate that an ancestor of the immortal Soyer 
was in the neighhourhood when L£lephas primigenius, approaching 
his favourite drinking place in the swamps of the Colne, incautiously 
“put his foot in it,” and remained, till Mr. Fisher found him, a 
standing warning to those who are insufficiently acquainted with the 
nature of Post-Glacial deposits to confine themselves to more solid 
ground. ; W. H. Datton. 
25, PorTLAND STREET, NEWARK. 
An Anonymous Correspondent has fowarded us the following List of papers not 
read at the British Association, Swansea. 
Ramsay. Onthe Occurrence of masses of baked pudding-stone in an old Lake- Basin. 
Pengelly. Discovery of Punfield Beds in another Cavern near Torquay. 
Whitaker. 'The Perfection of the Geological Record. 
Dawkins. arly Man in French beds. 
Iee. Another Cove with fishes in the Old Red Sandstone. 
Percy. The Use of the Divining Rod on the Geological Survey. 
Barrett. Spirit-levelling : its application in a geological section. 
Hull and Kinahan. On Faults and Disturbances in Ireland. 
Hicks, A Lode on Saddle-back. 
Croll. Bi-Cycles and Geological Time. 
Burnaby. The Distribution of the Cockle in past times. 
Taylor. Halt-hour’s knapping in a Chalk-pit. 
Exratum.—Grou. Mag. for July, 1880, page 801, line 2, for Port Dinorwic 
read Carnarvon, 
