104 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [DeC. 13, 



d. Light- coloured fine marl, full of well-preserved shells, with a few bones ; 1 to 



2 feet. 



e. Flint- and chalk-rubble, with sand and clav, onlv upper surface exposed ; 3 to 



4 feet ? 

 C. Chalk. 



The shells in the brick-earth, c, are here, as in this same drift 

 in the other parts of the valley, few and irregularly dispersed ; but 

 in the underlying marl, d, they occur in the greatest profusion, iii 

 a very perfect state of preservation, and with traces of colour still 

 discernible in some specimenSc Since my visit to this pit, my friend 

 Mr. J. Brown of Stanway has passed several days there for the 

 purpose of following up this inquiry, and has brought to light a very 

 interesting series of land and freshwater shells, of which the par- 

 ticulars are given at page 106. It is, however, in the brick-earth, 

 c, that most of the bones are found. They sometimes occur in 

 considerable quantities, especially at the base of the brick-earth and 

 on the surface of the shell-marl, but are generally broken and in 

 fragments, the teeth excepted. 



The greater part of the bones belong to the small long-fronted Ox 

 {Bos longifrons) and the Red Deer {Cervus elaphus). I have found, 

 however, remains of the Elephant and of the Tichorhine two-horned 

 Rhinoceros, and probably of the Horse*. The Rhinoceros is rare at 

 this spot ; but I am informed that in digging the foundations of the 

 jail, a few hundred yards distant, a remarkable number of the teethf 

 and bones of this animal were found. 



Mr. Brown enumerates 12 species of land-shells and 8 species of 

 marsh and freshwater shells. They are all, without exception, recent 

 species, and the greater part are now common in the same district ; 

 one, in fact, the Pisidium amnicum, was first described from speci- 

 mens found in the valley of the Avon near Salisbury. All the 

 species found here have been met with in several other Pleistocene 

 deposits of England ; but it is not often, except probably at Cop- 

 thorne and Stutton, that so large a number of land-shells have been 

 found together. There are no less than 7 species of Helix ; the H. 

 hispida, H. arhustorum, and H. pulchella are plentiful, the latter 

 especially. So also is the Pupa marginata ; the Limax agrestis is 

 only rather less so. The water-mollusks, with the exception of the 

 Succinea putris, which is abundant, are not so numerous, and form 

 a group such as we might expect to find in a spring or shallow pond 

 rather than in a river. 



This character of the fauna, taken together with the mineral cha- 

 racter and the limited volume of the bed d, seems to indicate the 

 former existence at this spot of a pool, or of a small shallow stream 

 fed by springs rising out of the subjacent chalk, and supporting a few 

 freshwater mollusks. The numerous land-shells, mostly of moisture- 

 seeking species, may have been carried down by rains or destroyed 

 by occasional floods. 



The mass of debris spread over this remnant of an ancient land- 



* These are not mentioned by Mr. Brown, p. 106, as he describes only that 

 which he olitained during his few days' visit. 



•f Several of these are preserved in the Museum of the Society. 



