222 PSOCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [Feb. 8, 



at present 20 species), that, apart from lithological or stratigrapMcal 

 considerations, the conclusion is forced upon us that we have, in 

 the Red Crag, fossils derived from several preceding deposits — in fact, 

 we have not one fauna, but a mixture of selections from several. 

 As an example of this, in the list of Mammalia alone, we may take 

 the occurrence of such forms as — 1st, the Ziphioid Cetaceans ; 2nd, 

 the Mastodon, Rhinoceros, Tapirns, Felis, Hycena, and Sus ; and 

 3rd, the Hyracoiherium and Coryphodon, which forms are elsewhere 

 eminently characteristic of very distinct Pliocene, Miocene, and 

 Eocene strata. 



In speaking of the terrestrial Mammalia as probably identical 

 with Miocene forms, it must not be supposed that I in any way over- 

 look the excellent researches of the late Dr. Palconer ; and indeed 

 I am quite disposed to consider the Mastodon identical with the 

 Subapennine form M. Arvernensis, and distinct from the M. angusti- 

 dens. But since, in his otherwise exhaustive and satisfactory trea- 

 tise, Dr. Falconer does not finally decide the affinities of the Crag 

 Rhinoceros, Tapirus, Sus, and Felis, one must still regard it as a 

 doubtful question whether they are Miocene or Pliocene forms. 



An examination of the Molluscan fauna of the Red Crag demon- 

 strates its late Pliocene age, and the researches of Sir Charles Lyell, 

 published in the Journal of the Geological Society for 1852, which 

 I have lately been able to confirm upon more ample data, indicate 

 that the Red Crag was a litoral deposit of the same sea as that 

 which formed the Upper or Yellow Crag of Antwerp. This fact 

 has never been directly called in question ; and since it is allowed to 

 be true, there arises the necessity of explaining the occurrence, in 

 this Upper Pliocene deposit of Suffolk, of fossils which properly 

 belong to Middle or Lower Pliocene, perhaps Miocene and Eocene 

 formations. 



The teeth, otolites, facial and other bones of Cetaceans abound 

 in an unworn and ttnroUed condition in the Middle Crag of Antwerp, 

 where I have collected them ; the teeth and bones of forms of Mas- 

 todon, of Rhinoceros, of Tapir, and of Sus, similar to those of the 

 Red Crag, occur in the Miocene of Darmstadt on the one hand and 

 in the Pliocene Subapennine formations on the other ; but in neither 

 case are they associated with Ziphioid Cetaceans, and they are 

 always well preserved and little fractured. The teeth of Coryphodon 

 and HyraeotJierium are well known as characteristic Eocene fossUs, 

 unassociated with any of the forementioned Mammalia. All these 

 forms, however, are met with, indiscriminately associated, in this 

 litoral deposit of the Upper Pliocene, namely the Red Crag, and 

 more or less at the base of the Coralline Crag. It might be hazarded 

 as an explanation of this phenomenon, that all or some of these types 

 existed together under peculiar conditions, and that their remains 

 were simultaneously imbedded in a common sepulchre. The cor- 

 rectness of this view, however, must appear at once to be very im- 

 probable, since nowhere else are these remains associated : and see- 

 ing that an examination of the other fossils of the deposit does not 

 bear it out in any way, this improbability is rendered almost a 



