444 William Davies — Note on Pleistocene Mammalia. 



(No. 40), was obtained by a Dover fisberman in 1837, wbile dredg- 

 ing oif tbe Dogger Bank ; and after baving been offered for sale to 

 the British Museum and other Metropolitan institutions, was pur- 

 chased by Mr. G. B. Sowerby, in whose possession it has since 

 remained. It is decidedly the finest relic of the kind that I have 

 seen ; and the very faithful representation which I am enabled to 

 publish of it is due to the skill of Mr, Gr. B. Sowerby, jun., by 

 whom the drawing on wood was executed,"^ — Mag, of Nat. Hist. 

 July, 1839, vol, iii, pp. 347-8. However, the specimen was ulti- 

 mately purchased for the National Collection on the recommendation 

 of Mr. C. Koenig, the then Keeper of the Geological Department, 

 soon after the publication of Mr, Charlesworth's notice. 



The special interest attached to the jaw, apart from its importance 

 as having been selected as a type specimen by so acute an observer 

 as Dr, Falconer, is the locality whence it has been derived, and the 

 additional confirmation it gives of the typical character of the 

 remains of the Mammoth obtained from the Dogger Bank, as de- 

 scribed by me in a notice of the almost unique collection from this 

 locality made by Mr. J. J. Owles, of Yarmouth, in the March 

 Number of the present volume of the Geological Magazine (p. 97). 

 Thus it appears, on the evidence before us, that Elephas 'primigenius 

 is the only species found on the Dogger Bank, whereas the three 

 species E. primigenius, E. antiquus, and E. meridionalis, all occur in 

 the Forest-bed series along the Norfolk coast. Of these the Elephas 

 antiquus, according to Dr, Falconer, would seem to be the most 

 abundant, for he says: '-'Of the two thousand Elephant grinders, 

 which Mr, (Samuel) Woodward estimates to have been dredged up 

 within thirteen years, from the oyster-bed near Happisburgh, I be- 

 lieve that by far the largest number belonged to this species. The 

 next in point of number, are those of the true Mammoth from the 

 wide-spread drift and gravel-beds. Teeth of E. meridionalis are 

 much less frequent," — ("Falconer's Palseontological Memoirs," vol. 

 ii. p. 204.) 



Considering the interest attached to this locality, and the number 

 of fossils it has yielded to the dredge, the records regarding them 

 are few. Prof. Owen, in his " British Fossil Mammals," has given 

 a most extensive summary, both of the remains found, and the 

 localities whence fossil elephants have been obtained, but has no 

 notice of this jaw, unless tbe following quotation refers to it : "A 

 fine lower jaw of a young Mammoth, in the possession of Mr, G. B. 

 Sowerby, was thus dredged up off the Dogger Bank ; and a femur 

 and portion of a large tusk were raised from twenty-five fathoms 

 at low water, midway between Yarmouth and the Dutch coast." ^ 

 But when the above was published, the mandible noticed by Charles- 

 worth had been long in the British Museum, and his engraving of it 

 had been known for some years. 



^ Mr. Charlesworth subsequently used the woodcut to illustrate tbe wrapper of his 

 " London Geological Journal." The accompanying figure, Plate XII., is a careful 

 reproduction of the original by Miss G. M. Woodward. 



2 Brit. Foss. Mamm. and Birds, 1846, p. 259. 



