THE 



GEOLOGICAL MAGAZINE. 



NEW SERIES. DECADE II. VOL. V. 



No. III.— MARCH, 1878. 



(D:RXG-Xl<r .A.Xj ^A^I^TIOXilES. 



L — On a Collection of Pleistocene Mammals Dredged off the 

 Eastern Coast. 



By William Davies, F. G. S. ; 

 of the British Museum. 



OF the many private collections of vertebrate fossils found on 

 or off the coast of the Eastern counties, none surpass in palseon- 

 tological and also in geological interest the fine collection made 

 with much zeal and care by Mr. J. J. Owles, of Yarmouth, in- 

 asmuch as the larger portion of the specimens are exclusively the 

 remains of Postglacial Mammals, and were brought up in the 

 fishermen's dredge, either from, or in close proximity to the well- 

 known Dogger Bank, thus proving conclusively the existence of 

 submerged Pleistocene or Postglacial land lying off the Eastern 

 coast in the North Sea. Prof. Boyd Dawkins is the only author, 

 as far as I am at present aware, who has made any reference to this 

 really valuable series of remains, and then only incidentally in his 

 memoir, " On the Distribution of Postglacial Mammals." ^ 



The collection having been deposited in the British Museum, 

 where of necessity it will be absorbed and distributed in the general 

 collection, and its unity be lost ; is worthy of being placed upon 

 record as a whole, on account of the interest it possesses in relation 

 to the geological history of the bed of the sea lying off the Norfolk 

 coast. The species represented in it are — 



£os primigenius, Boj . 

 Bison priscits, Boj. 

 Equiis caballus, Linn. 



Ursus, sp. 

 Cants lupus, Linn. 

 Hycsna spelcea, Goldf . 

 Gervus megaceros, Hart. 

 C, tarandus, Linn. 

 C. elaphus, Linn. 

 Germs, sp. 



Rhinoceros tichorhinus, Cuv. 

 Elephas primigenius, Blum. 

 Gastor fiber, Linn. 

 Trichechus rosmarus, Linn. 



and some large vertebrae of Cetaceans of a later date. The collection 

 contains altogether about 300 specimens. Of these the remains of 

 the Mammoth are most numerous, exceeding one hundred specimens, 

 and consisting of portions of jaws, detached molars, tusks, bones of 

 the trunk and limbs. Of separate teeth and jaws there are upwards 

 of seventy, representing nearly as many individual Mammoths ; of 

 tusks there are four, one of large size, but imperfect ; three quite 

 perfect, but of comparatively young animals, each of which shows 

 1 Quart. Journ. Gaol. Soc. vol. sxv. p. 192. 



DECADE II. — TOL. T. — NO. III. 7 



