296 E. B. POULTON ON MAMMALIAN REMAINS AND TREE- 



20. On Mammalian Remains and Tree-trunks in Quaternary 

 Sands at Reading. By Edward B. Poulton, Esq., M.A., F.G.S., 

 of Jesus College, Oxford, Burdett-Coutts Scholar of the Uni- 

 versity, formerly Demonstrator in the Biological Department of 

 the University Museum. (Read January 21, 1880.) 



The pit furnishing some interesting sections to be described in the 

 following paper is situated on the Redlands estate, at Reading, a 

 little east of the new Grammar School, and about a mile south-east 

 of the market-place. The pit is about halfway up the south slope 

 of the conjoined Thames and Kennet valleys, and is 36 feet above 

 the river-level. It has been worked for gravel and sand for some 

 years, and recently for clay ; and the gravel-bed, from 10 to 15 feet 

 in thickness, has been cleared out over an area 276 feet in length 

 from north to south, and of about the same average length from 

 east to west, where, however, the boundaries are irregular and, to 

 the east, partly effaced. The beds exposed in the north face are 

 far more perfect and instructive than elsewhere. This face, about 

 20-25 feet in average height, and, where completely exposed, 

 65 feet in length, is drawn to a scale of -^ in. to the foot in 

 fig. 1. 



A. About 12 feet thick, represents the gravels and recent strata overlying 

 certain reconstructed beds of sand and clay. 



(1) 1 foot 6 inches thick, is the superficial alluvium containing elements 

 derived from the waste of the gravel belovr. 



(2) 2 feet 6 inches thick, is transitional between the alluvium and the under- 



lying gravel. It consists of rounded and subangular flints scattered 

 thinly through a base of yellow clayey soil, 



(3) 8 feet thick, is the gravel containing bones of land-mammalia. A rough 



stratification is apparent ; and there are some intercalated beds of sand. 

 A considerable thickness of this, with long, ramified, lateral prolonga- 

 tions, is seen about the centre of the exposed gravel. There is a large 

 amount of ferruginous cement, and everywhere a deep staining of 

 iron oxide. 



No river-shells were detected, although I made a careful search 

 for them, assisted by much earnest inspection of kind friends. I 

 found a flake about halfway up the gravel-bed ; but this may have 

 fallen from the higher alluvium, although this derivation appears 

 doubtful, because the vertical face of the cliff affords such slight 

 opportunity for lodgment*. The elements of the gravel are derived 

 from the following sources, in the order of their relative preponder- 

 ance : — 



(a) Chalk. Subangular flints, derived from the waste of the 

 chalk, are the chief constituents of this gravel. Some few are quite 



^ Since writing the above another, more perfect flake was found by me (April 

 8th) on a gravel-path near the pit. The gravel certainly came from the pit ; 

 and it is highly probable that the flake was carried with it. Neither of the spe- 

 cimens can be referred with certainty to either the Neolithic or the Palaeohthio 

 period. 



