﻿MURCHISON FLINT DRIFT OF S.E. ENGLAND. 



385 



cliffs, which from their white colour are supposed to have fallen out 

 of the chalky or lower portion of the detritus. 



It is only, however, where the drift fills the depression in which 

 Folkestone stands, that, just as in many other fossil localities, its upper 

 part consists of a thick mass of unstra titled clay and loam. Under 

 like physical conditions, like results have followed; and very numerous 

 remains of fossil quadrupeds have rewarded the diligent research of 

 Mr. S. J. Mackie, of that place. They consist of bones of Elephant, 

 Hippopotamus, Ox, Horse, Stag, and Hyaena, a fine collection of 

 which, thanks to the zeal of that gentleman, is now laid before the 

 Society, and of which, at my request, he has prepared an account*. 

 Not anticipating the details of Mr. Mackie, I must, however, after 

 having inspected the chief localities in his company, state the impres- 

 sion that their examination produced on me, and show how they cor- 

 roborate the inferences drawn from other localities. 



The detritus which caps the cliff of Lower Green Sandstone behind 

 the Victoria Hotel (fig. 1 1), and about 8U feet above the sea, consists 



Fig. 11. — Diagram, showing the relations of the Angular Drift and 

 its accompanying Argillaceous Loam to the Chalk, Greensand, fyc, 

 in the neighbourhood of Folkestone. 



Folkestone Hill, 566 feet 



above the sea. N. 



Railway Station, 

 150 feet above 

 sea level. 



d 



c. Chalk covered with flint-drift, x. d. Malm-rock or Upper Greensand. 



/ Lower Greensand } covere d with the Mammaliferous flint-drift and its overlying clay, x. 



in its southern part of a mass of reddish-brown clay, which in its 

 course northward expands and becomes in its lower part a white 

 loam, beneath which ochreous flint-gravel, commencing as a mere 

 point or wedge, thickens and thins out according to the inequalities 

 of the surface of the sandstone on which it has been lodged. Now, 

 it is in this lower flinty debris, and at a height varying from 80 

 to about 110 feet above the sea, that Mr. Mackie has found the 

 greater part of the large animal remains. Here also, as in other 

 places noted, they have been evidently protected from decomposition 

 by the thick cover of argillaceous matter. The researches of Mr. 

 Mackie and Mr. Morris have further detected, in the upper and 

 finer portion of the rubble, but under the clay and brick-earth, two 

 species of Helix which are identical with forms now living. If taken 

 by itself, this fact might seem to indicate, that the fossil bones of 

 Folkestone had been simply accumulated in a sort of lake which 

 formerly occupied this depression ; but a reference to the data afforded 

 by the surrounding tract prevents the adoption of that hypothesis. 

 The brick-earth, some of which lies at low levels in the ravine north 

 of Folkestone, rises over the surfaces of the Gault, as well as of the 



* See Mr. Mackie's Paper, supra, p. 257 et seq. 



