380 Reports and Proceedings. 



3. " On the Animal Eemains found by Col. Lane Fox in the High- 

 and Low-level Gravels at Acton and Turnham Green." By George 

 Busk, Esq., F.E.S., F.G.S. The author described the mammalian 

 bones referred to in the preceding paper. 



The remains from the High-level Gravels at Acton belong to the 

 genera Bos, Ovis, Equvs, and Elephas (?). The greater part belong to 

 the first-named genus, and are probably modern, as are also those of 

 Ovis. The remains of Equus may be of greater antiquity. The 

 other bones found may belong either to Elephant, Rhinoceros, or 

 Hippopotamus ; they include a large portion of an Elephant's molar, 

 and are much rolled. 



The remains from the mid-level gravel at Turnham Green gene- 

 rally present the characters of great antiquity. They include bones 

 of Bhinoceros hemitcechus, Equus cahallus, Hippopotamus major (one 

 of them the left frontal of a very young animal almost unworn), 

 Bos (probably B. primigenius, and some perhaps Bison priscus), 

 Cervus (C. Clactonensis, ralc.= C. Browni, Dawk., C. elaphus, and 

 C. tarandus), Ursus ferox priscus, ajid Elephas primigenius. 



Discussion. — Mr. Prestwich complimented the author on the exactness and com- 

 pleteness of his description of the classical district which he had investigated, in 

 which mammalian bones had been found and described by Mr. Trimmer so early as 

 1815. In that case Hippopotamus remains, very fresh and unworn, had also been 

 discovered. Prof. Morris had also described a deposit near Brentford in which 

 numerous remains of Reindeer were present, showing how variable was the distri- 

 bution of mammalian remains even in a limited area, and how unsafe it was to base 

 theories upon merely negative evidence.. It was to be hoped that other investigators 

 would extend similar discoveries to other parts of the valley of the Thames. 



Mr. Godwin- Austen did not think that the presence of the young Hippopotamus 

 was absolutely conclusive of its having been born in this country. With regard to 

 the presence of remains of Eeindeer and Hippopotamus in the same beds, not only 

 might there have been an overlapping of fauna such as has been pointed out by Sir 

 Charles Lyell, but there also might be an intermingling of the included remains from 

 two beds of different ages. He was not altogether satisfied with the evidence as to 

 the CO- existence of man with Elephas primigeniun, nor as to the artificial character 

 of some of the presumed implements. He did not attach any great importance to 

 the merely fragmentary bones. 



Mr. Evans maintained that the implements exhibited were of necessity artificial, 

 and commented on the nature of the evidence as to the co-existence of man with the 

 Pleistocene fauna. Under any circumstances the gravels containing the implements 

 could only have been deposited at a time when the Thames valley had not been ex- 

 cavated to anything like its present depth ; and they were therefore of great antiquity. 

 There was, moreover, a notable absence in them of a number of the animals usually 

 found associated with Neolithic implements ; and if man had not subsisted on the 

 animals the remains of which were found associated with his handiworks in the gravels, 

 it was a question on what food he had had to depend. The absence of implements in 

 the low-level gravels seemed to him significant of a diminution in the number of the 

 human beings who frequented the banks of the river. 



Mr. Carruthers said that as the rhizome, whether it was that of Aspidium or 

 Osmunda, was an aerial, and not a subterraneous rhizome, it must have been carried 

 to its present position ; and it consequently indicated, as Colonel Lane Fox had 

 pointed out, the direction of the stream. 



Mr. Flower regarded Col. Lane Fox's memoir as of great interest, as affording an 

 additional instance of that perfect similarity of these deposits, whether in France or 

 England, which in places so wide apart might reasonably be taken to indicate a 

 common origin. It was indeed generally assumed that these deposits were brought 

 down by rivers ; but this, according to his view, was by no means certain. Col. Lane 

 Fox had described the valley as 4 J miles wide ; but there was at Croydon, 12 miles 

 distant, a deposit of gravel capped with loess, containing elephant remains, and ex- 



