180 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [Peb. 20 



origins. Some but lately washed out of the grej clay were of a pale 

 grey colour, nearly devoid of gelatine, and to a certain extent mine- 

 ralized ; while others, light and porous, contained a large percentage 

 of gelatine, and were of a reddish or sepia colour, which is inva- 

 riably that assumed by remains imbedded in alluvial mud. The latter 

 were probably derived from the alluvium hard by. Among them 

 were a metacarpal of Goat or Sheep, and a small bovine humerus. 

 A third class of remains were very heavy, stained black, and in- 

 crusted with a pyritous deposit, termed " pan," closely resembling that 

 in the fossils from the Preglacial Forest-bed of Norfolk. How far 

 this latter condition may be owing to the presence of large quantities 

 of peroxide of iron (derived from the Red Crag) in the mud in which 

 they were lying, and whether it be a chemical result of the decom- 

 position of organic remains in sea-water full of peroxide, are points 

 on which I can hazard no opinion. The skuM. from Walton, pre- 

 sented to the British Museum by Mr. Brown, of Stanway, and quoted 

 by Professor Owen, is in precisely the same condition and of the same 

 reddish colour as the bovine, caprine, and ovine remains above men- 

 tioned, and therefore was probably derived from the same source, 

 whatever that may have been. It is not only waterworn, but also 

 contains a few pebbles of shingle in one of the horn-cores, which 

 proves that it was most certainly washed up by the sea. Its mineral 

 condition forbids its derivation from the grey clay, and it cannot be 

 classed with the black remains ; therefore it probably was washed 

 out of the alluvium close by, which, throughout Western Europe, is 

 full of the remains of the same animal. The presence of the Sheep 

 or Goat affords collateral proof of this, as neither of these animals has 

 been found in any Pleistocene deposit up to the present day ; and both 

 apparently passed into Europe after the disappearance of the Cave- 

 Hyena, Cave-Bear, and all the extinct mammals, the Irish Elk being 

 excepted. They characterize the Prehistoric deposits of Erance, Ger- 

 many, and Scandinavia. The skull in question is therefore in all 

 probability also of Prehistoric age, but not of equal antiquity with 

 the Elephas antiquus, leptorhine Rhinoceros, and Hippopotcmius 

 major, cast up by the sea on the same shore. The argument that 

 would prove that it was in this particular case coeval with those 

 extinct animals, might also be applied to the other waifs and strays, 

 sea-weed, bits of wood, shells and the like, left between high- and 

 low-water mark. The skull of Bos longifrons, found at Clacton, pre- 

 served also in the British Museum, falls into the same category as 

 that of Walton. If, then, there is no direct evidence of the exact 

 gisement of these skulls, the mere accident of their being associated 

 with the remains of the extinct Mammals on the shore cannot be 

 conclusive of their geological age ; and therefore Professor Owen's 

 view, founded on this assumption, must fall. A third locality is 

 cited in the ' British Fossil Mammals,' of its occuiTcnce with the Frus 

 and Bison at Bricklehampton Bank, near Cropthorne, in Worcester- 

 shire*. Unfortunately I have sought in vain for the remains on 

 which the determination is based, as they are neither named nor 

 -- Op. cit. p. 512. 



