70 REPORT 1839. 



fissures which are filled with detritus of a later date ; but Mr. Lyell 

 inclines strongly to the former opinion*. 



Mr. Lyell then mentioned the discovery, by Mr. Colchester, of the 

 tooth of an opossum in the London Clay at Kyson, near Woodbridge. 

 It was found, along with the teeth of Lamnce, in a bed of sand about 

 ten feet thick, covered by seventeen feet of London clay, and the 

 whole overlaid, at a short distance, by the red crag. Mr. Owen con- 

 siders this tooth to belong to a species allied to the Virginian Opos- 

 sum. Further search has since been made on this spot by Mr. Col- 

 chester, accompanied by Mr. Wood; and part of a jaw, with a molar 

 tooth, has been found, which Mr. Owen has decidedly referred to an 

 extinct Quadrumane allied to Macacus. (See Magazine of Natural Hi- 

 story, new series, vol. iii. p. 446.) This is the first instance of the oc- 

 currence of quadrumanous mammals in deposits of the eocene period ; 

 and it is thus proved that this order of animals existed long anteriorly 

 to the human racef . 



On the Discovery of an Ichthyosaurus. By Mr. W. Marrat. 



In this communication Mr. Marrat announced that his son, Mr. F. 

 P. Marrat, had lately met with an ichthyosaurus in the lias limestone 

 at Strensham, near Tewkesbury. The fore paddles were eleven inches 

 long, and eight broad ; the hind paddles seven inches long, and five 

 broad. The ribs were forty-six in number, and the largest vertebrae 

 rather more than two inches in diameter. 



On Marine Shells found in Gravel near Worcester. 

 By Jabez Allies, Esq. 



Mr. Allies exhibited a series of the marine shells of existing species 

 which have been found in the gravel near Worcester since the publi- 

 cation of Mr. Murchison's Silurian System, in which work their occur- 

 rence, in this locality, is first noticed. At Bromwich Hill, on the west 

 of Worcester, rolled shells of Turritella ungulina and Cardium *edule 

 have been found beneath twelve feet of gravel at about fifty feet above 

 the Severn. Bones and teeth of the elephant and rhinoceros occur in 

 the same bed of gravel. At Kempsey, four miles S. of Worcester, the 

 Turbo littoreus has been found (in addition to the shells enumerated 

 by Mr. Murchison at p. 533 of his work) beneath about twelve feet of 

 gravel, from fifteen to twenty feet above the Severn. 



* For a full account of the position of these fossils with figures of the same, 

 see Taylor's Annals of Natural History, No. 23. p. 186, Nov. 1839. 



f For the details of this paper and illut^tvations of the organic remains, see 

 papers by Mr. Lyell and Professor Owen, ibid, pp. 189, 191. 



