Prof. Prestwich—The Mammoth in the Darent Valley. 113 
YV.—On toe Recent Discovery oF THE REMAINS OF THE 
MamMorH IN THE VALLEY OF THE DaRENT. 
By Prof. J. Presrwicn, M.A., F.R.S., V.P.G.S., etc. 
BUNDANT as the remains of the Mammoth and its associated 
. group of Pleistocene Mammalia are in the adjacent valleys of 
the Medway and the Cray, none have been yet recorded in the 
valley of the Darent, to which the Mammoth no doubt commonly 
resorted at the same time. One reason may be that this valley is 
very bare of Drift, and between Dartford and Otford there is not 
a single pit in the little drift-gravel that is met with. 
Shallow and narrow sections, 3 to 8 feet deep, were, however, 
opened out in the drift beds last summer for the purpose of the 
new drainage works for the village of Shoreham. The drift was 
‘there found to consist mostly of light-coloured loam, sand and chalk 
debris, full generally of angular and unworn flints. No organic 
remains were found in passing through the village, but at its north- 
west corner, in carrying a trench from the main road down to and 
under the river, the workmen came, at the depth of 34 feet, upon 
the tusk of a Mammoth, about 6 feet long, lying in a bed of sand 
and gravel. It was in an extremely friable condition, and fell to 
pieces in getting it out. A piece only one foot long reached me. 
I found. the usual loam, chalk and flint rubble here replaced by a 
bed of sharp sand and subangular gravel, no doubt of fluviatile origin. 
I succeeded, by washing some of the materials, in obtaining a few 
fragments of shells, which I would refer with some doubt to 
Pisidium, Planorbis and Helix, but they were extremely scarce and 
friable, and I could not obtain a single entire specimen. The gravel 
consisted of subangular flints, pebbles of chalk, subangular 
fragments of chert and ragstone from the Lower Greensand of 
Sevenoaks, and Tertiary flint pebbles, showing the flow of the river 
to have been then as now from south to north. 
SEcTION ACROSS THE VALLEY OF THE DarEenT BY THE PapER-MILL AT 
SHOREHAM :—DisTance ABbouT 1 MILE. 
Site of 
3 
Meenfield Mammoth # D ee all 
Hill. tusk, Q . 
4 
VV 
E 
=------ Paper Mill. 
e-- 
a. Alluvium. 6. Old River-drift. e. Chalk. 
The height of the spot where the remains were found is 30 feet 
above the present stream, or 202 feet above Ordnance datum. The 
earlier works for the main drainage had already shown that the 
Alluvial beds of clay in the valley were from eight to ten feet thick, 
with an underlying bed of gravel and chalk rubble five to six feet 
thick. Therefore the old river at that Quaternary time must have 
flowed on a bed some 380 to 40 feet higher than at its last stages. 
DECADE III.—VOL. VI.—NO. III. 8 
