206 T. Thompson — Discovery of Hippopotamus, ^"c. 



IV. — On the Discovekt of a Skeleton of the Hippopotamus in 



POST-PMOCENE DrIFT NEAE MoTCOMB, DoRSET. 

 By T. Thompson, Esq. 



THE existence of Post-pliocene deposits in this neighbourhood 

 has until lately been quite unknown, nothing of the kind 

 having been detected either by the Geological Survey or subsequent 

 observers. However, in the winter of 1866, a small section was ex- 

 posed in a brick-field situated on a low rising-ground at the first mile- 

 stone out of Shaftesbury towards Gillingham, and known as Hawkers' 

 Hill. The clay here dug for brickmaking is Kimmeridge, pre- 

 senting fossilized bones of the Pliosaurus and Icthyosaurus, and 

 very friable remains of an Ammonite, etc. The attention of the 

 writer was first attracted to the Drift on observing, above part of 

 the Kimmeridge clay, a thin section of soil of an ochreous tint due to 

 oxide of iron, and somewhat resembling the loose stratum of chert 

 and sand which caps the neighbouring Green-sand rock. He 

 learnt on inquiring of the labourers that they had recently found 

 some large bones in this deposit, but thinking them of no use they 

 had wheeled them off with the rubbish, in which they then lay, 

 effectually re-buried. Much interested at this announcement, he 

 induced the men again to remove the rubbish, and found that 

 the bones were some vertebrae of a large mammalian animal, 

 together with fragments of the ribs and leg-bones. They were, of 

 course, not at all fossilized, and their original weak state had been 

 sadly aggravated by a second burial and disinterment. Nothing 

 more was turned out that winter, and it was not until the end of 1867, 

 that digging was resumed. Further portions of the same skeleton 

 were now found, including another instalment of vertebrse, and por- 

 tions of the skull and jaws. With the latter were several teeth in a 

 sufficiently entire state to show that the creature was undoubtedly a 

 Hippopotamus ; numerous fragments of the tusks affording further 

 proof of this. The writer now frequently visited and watched " the 

 diggings," and after a short time two horn-cores, considerable por- 

 tions of the skull, and some fragments of the leg-bones of Bison 

 priscus of unusual size came to light. The more perfect horn-core is 

 18 inches long and 14 inches in diameter at the base. 



The past winter brought the usual resumption of clay-digging, 

 and the necessary removal of more of the superincumbent Drift. The 

 upper portion of the skull and two horn-cores of another Bison priscus 

 were first reached, and as they lay in their natural position the dis- 

 tance between the tips of the horns was upwards of four feet. Not- 

 withstanding that the writer took great precautions in the hope to 

 preserve this highly interesting relic in an entire state, he had the 

 mortification to see it crumble into fragments in the process of 

 removal, and could only succeed in patching up a portion of one of 

 the horn-cores. As the digging went on, a molar of an elephant — 

 probably Elephas primigenius — and parts of one or more tusks were 

 turned out, but all in a sadly fragmentary state. The piece of tusk 

 appears to have been nearly 6 feet long, but the whole was com- 



