1855,] HULL ON THE COTTESWOLDS. 491 



About eight years ago, during the formation of the Oxford, Wor- 

 cester, and Wolverhampton Railway, a cutting was made through 

 gravel, referable to estuarine origin, near the village of Ascott. The 

 cutting is now covered by grass, but the following section (fig. 10) 

 is exposed in a gravel-pit at its extreme end. 



Fig. 10. — Section of the Estuarine Beds at Ascott, Oxfordshire. 



-l- '--V^, -■ -, '-:•_ \ '■ '■, '; ' ; ■ v,-':'/^ r Estuarine Beds 



a. Warp-Drift ; soil passing downwards into brown sandy loam, with a few 

 pebbles, and varying from 6 inches to 7 feet. 



B. Fine yellow and brown sand. 



C. Fine gravel, composed principally of fragments of local rocks, but occasionally 



of those of more distant origin, as slate, flint, and grits. 

 d. Lower Lias Shale, with a bed of blue limestone charged with fossils, about 

 1 foot thick. 



At 9 feet from the surface in the cutting, the skeleton of a large 

 mammal was found. It was described to me as being about 18 feet 

 in length without the head, which was not obtained. From the 

 description I received of the tusks, which were curved and measured 

 9 feet from the tip to the base ; and, from an inspection of two of 

 the teeth, I concluded the skeleton to have been that of the Elephas 

 'primigenius. The navvies were continually digging up portions of 

 the skeleton for five weeks before they were aware what they had 

 found *. 



In the Lias Clay beneath were the vertebrae of Ichthyosaurus, 

 and in the superficial gravel, above the skeleton of the Elephant, 

 human remains, probably of very ancient date, were discovered ; and 

 thus, in a series of deposits of only 20 feet in aggregate thickness, 

 relics characteristic of three great epochs in the earth's history were 

 entombed in the order of their relative ages. 



My endeavours to obtain shells from these gravels have been in- 

 effectual ; but it is probable they are the equivalents of the estuarine 

 and mammaliferous deposits of the Vale of Gloucester and the 

 Thames Valley, and with those lately described by Mr. Trimmer 

 as occurring in the neighbourhood of Peterborough. According to 

 this supposition they are to be included in the second stationary, or 



* The greater portion of the skeleton is supposed to be in the possession of 

 J. Taunton, Esq., formerly Engineer of the line. Two teeth were shown to me 

 by Mr. Lardner of Ascott, to whom, as also to the Rev. F, E. Lott, I am indebted 

 for information on the subject. 



VOL. XI. PART I. 2 L 



