3 
Dichobune exhibits characters which connect the Pachydermata with 
the Ruminantia, and thus exhibits another of those extraurdinary 
unions of characters which in existing Mammalia belong to distinct 
orders. In the Dichebune the posterior molars begin to exhibit a 
double series of cusps, of which the external present the erescentic 
form, so that the teeth of the Dichobune murina might be mistaken 
for those of true Ruminantia. In the lower jaw of the Dichobune 
the antepenultimate and the penultimate grinders have two pairs of 
cusps, and the last grinder three pairs, of which the posterior are 
small and almost blended together, so that when worn down they 
appear single. 
In this respect, as well as in the form of the ascending ramus of 
the lower jaw, Cuvier states, in the Ossemens Fossiles, that the Dicho- 
bune “ prodigiously resembles” the young Musk Deer. 
Now with respect to Mr. Pratt’s specimen, Professor Owen ob- 
served, there is undoubtedly a close resemblance to the Musk Deer, 
but the differences are sufficiently great to forbid its bemg placed 
among the Ruminantia, while there is a still nearer resemblance be- 
tween it and the genus Dichobune. The Isle of Wight specimen being 
somewhat larger than the D. deporinum, and the ascending ramus 
differing in form and approaching that of the true Anoplotheria, Mr. 
Owen considers that it indicates a new species, which until the form 
of the anterior molars and incisors is known, may be referred to the 
genus Dichobune, under the name of Dichobune cervinum. 
A memoir “On the Drift from the Chalk and strata below the 
Chalk in the Counties of Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex, Cambridge, Hun- 
tingdon, Bedford, Hertford, and Middlesex,” by James Mitchell, 
Esq., LL.D., F.G.S., was then read. 
The drift which is so extensively distributed over the above coun- 
ties, consists chiefly of stiff blue and yellow clay, varying from 4 to 
above 70 feet in thickness; and it contains masses and small fragments 
of chalk, chalk flints, primary, secondary and other rocks, and fossils 
from nearly every secondary formation in England. In some local- 
ities the clay forms the mass of the drift, but in others it contains 
or rests on beds of sand and gravel; and it is often overlaid by a 
deposit, occasionally exceeding 50 feet thick, of sand, gravel, and 
chalk flints. 
The principal locality in Norfolk, mentioned by the author, is 
Cromer, the cliffs near which vary in height from 100 to 150 feet ; 
the lower half consisting of blue clay charged with masses and frag- 
ments of chalk, unaltered chalk flints, and secondary and primary 
rocks ; and the upper half of sand and gravel, capped by 2 feet of 
ferruginous sand, in some places black. ‘The same general descrip- 
tion, it is stated, will apply to the cliffs for 12 miles east and west 
of Cromer; but they occasionally present most extraordinary con- 
tortions of the beds. The other localities in Norfolk, alluded to 
by the author, are in the parishes of Pulham St. Mary Magdalen, 
Pulham St. Mary the Virgin; and a pit one mile from Harleston 
towards Diss, where 4 feet of blue clay, abounding with chalk peb-. 
B 2 
