340 Mr. Parkinson on the Strata, 



unaltered state, and this indeed seems to be the fact from its resi- 

 nous fracture ; but it must be observed, on the other hand, that pieces 

 of it occur which are penetrated by iron pyrites. 



This stratum is also rendered exceedingly interesting by its surface 

 appearing to have been the residence of land animals, not a single 

 V€stige of which seems to have been found in any of the numerous 

 subjacent strata of the British series. Mr. Jacobs relates that the 

 remains of an elephant were found at Shepey. The remains of the 

 elephant, stag, and hippopotamus have ako been dug up at Kew. At 

 Walton in Essex, not only the remains of the elephant, stag, and 

 hippopotamus have been discovered, but also remains of the rhino^ 

 cerot, and of the Irish fossil elk. Org. Rem. vol. iii. p. S66. 



It has been generally supposed that these remains were contained 

 within the stratum of blue clay ; but the circumstances, under which 

 they are found, seem rather to warrant the conclusion, that they were 

 deposited on the surface of those low spots where abruptions of the 

 superior part of this stratum had taken place. . Thus the remains of 

 the elephant mentioned by Mr. Jacobs were not in the cliff, but 

 in a low situation at a distance from it ; so also the remains of land 

 animals in Essex occur a litde below the surface, in a line with 

 the marshes, which are a veiy few feet above high water mark. By 

 a communication of the late Mr. William Trimmer of Kew, it ap- 

 peared that he found, under the sandy gravel, a bed of earth, highly 

 calcareous, from one foot to nine feet in thickness ; beneath this a 

 bed of gravel a few feet thick, containing water, and then the main 

 stratum of blue clay. At the bottom of the sandy gravel, he observed 

 that the bones of the hippopotamus, deer, and elephant were met with ; 

 but not in those parts of the field to which the calcareous bed did 

 not extend. Here also a considerable number of small and appa- 

 rently fresh-water shells, and, at the bottom, snail-shellb were found. 



