166 
entrapping and destroying a living struggling prey, as well as from 
the length (11 feet) which it may be inferred the creature attained, 
Mr. Owen concludes it was not provided with poisonous fangs. 
Serpents of similar dimensions exist in the present day only in 
tropical regions, and their food consists principally of the warm- 
blooded animals. Mr. Owen therefore in conclusion states, that had 
no evidence been obtained of birds or mammals in the London clay, 
he would have felt persuaded that they must have coexisted with 
the Paleophis Toliapicus. 
A paper was afterwards read, entitled ‘‘ Observations on the lo- 
cality of the Hyracotherium,” by William Richardson, Esq., F.G.S. 
In 1829, when Mr. Richardson first examined the coast from 
Whitstable to Herne Bay, it presented an uniform, geological struc- 
ture, composed of a capping of vegetable mould, under which was a 
stratum 3 or 4 feet thick of yellow brick earth, containing in the 
upper part rolled and angular flmts, mammalian remains and fossils 
derived from secondary strata; and beneath, forming the mass of 
the cliff, was London clay of a dark brown colour, abounding in 
septaria, selenite, pyritous wood, teeth and vertebree of fishes, Nau- 
tili with other characteristic marine testacea, Encrinital and Penta- 
crinital remains, and crustaceans. 
The whole of the line of coast undergoes rapid desradation\i in con- 
sequence of the encroachment of the sea and land springs; and the 
changes thus annually produced,effect great alterations in the physical 
outline of the cliffs. ‘The geological structure, however, presented by 
them in 1829 remained for the greater part the same in the autumn 
of 1839, except at the part called Studd Hill. At this point, the dark 
brown incoherent clay had been removed, and a deep blue, tenacious 
one exposed. A change had also taken place in the character of 
the fossils, the marine remains having gradually become less promi- 
nent and been replaced by others of a fluvio-marine character. In 
the autumn of last year, Mr. Richardson could not find a single ma- 
rine shell, and only a few fragments of crinoidal stems. Terrestrial 
vegetables have, however, become so prodigiously abundant, that 
he has obtained at different times above 500 fossil cones, fruits, and 
other seed-vessels ; and fragments of small trees converted into py- 
rites occur in so great quantities, that they have been removed by 
barge loads for ceconomical purposes, and become a source of con~ 
siderable profit to the neighbouring peasantry. These remains pre- 
sent no indications of having been transported from a distance. 
Neither land nor fresh-water shells have been observed. 
From the abundance of vegetables, and the knowledge that Nature 
ever directs her means as well in number as in fitness to particular 
ends, Mr. Richardson inferred, that remains either of quadrupeds or 
birds would be found in Studd Hill; and though his search was long 
fruitless, it was at last rewarded by the discovery of the portion of 
the Hyracotherium described by Mr. Owen in the preceding memoir. 
January 8, 1840, Robert Fellows, Esq., LL.D., Dorset Square ; 
