22 G riiOCEEPiNGS of the geological sociEfY. [Apr. 3, 



at Peckham, places its relative age beyond all doubt. For the par- 

 ticulars of its "gisement" I am indebted to Mr. Davis, of the 

 British Museum. In the construction of the sewer at Rye Lane, 

 near Peckham, in 1862, the following strata were cut through : — 



Vegetable soil. 

 3. Sandy gravel. 3 to 4 feet. 

 2. Light banded clay, 10 to 12 feet. 

 1. Peat, containing fragments of trees. 



The remains obtained from the light clay, and preserved in the 

 British Museum, comprise the incisor and canine of Hip^popotamus 

 major, the humeri of Bos urus and Bison priscus, the antler of a 

 Deer, and two teeth and a tibia of Ehinoceros lej^torMnus. The 

 matrix still adherent to the specimens proves conclusively that they 

 were derived from the pale-grey clay (2). Prom the peat which 

 underlies, and which therefore is older than, the clay, was obtained 

 the fine series of teeth of Bhinoceros tichorliiniis. The deep-black 

 colour of these, places the fact of their having been imbedded in the 

 peat beyond all doubt. In this particular case, then, the remains of 

 the tichorhine were deposited in the peat (1) before those of the 

 leptorhine species in the clay (2). Had there been no other evidence 

 of the date of the latter, this section might have been cited to prove 

 that the leptorhine was of more modern date than the tichorhine 

 Rhinoceros. Checked by other discoveries, it is a warning against 

 too hasty generalizations. The sum, indeed, of the evidence of the 

 range of the species, both in space and time, is simply this : — "While 

 it is perfectly true that in several instances the species has been 

 found associated with the Pliocene Blephas antiquus and Hippopo-' 

 tamus major, as in the caves of Kirkdale, Durdham Down, and 

 GowGr, and in the Lexden Brickfields, the most common and cha- 

 racteristic Pleistocene mammals being absent, viz. the Mammoth 

 and tichorhine Rhinoceros, its occurrence, in the Hysena-den at 

 Wokey and in the brick-earth of Crayford, with these latter two spe- 

 cies forbids the hypothesis of its characterizing an epoch anterior to 

 the spread of these animals over Britain. The " gisement " of the re- 

 mains of Rhinoceros at Peckham would prove that, in some particu- 

 lar places, the leptorhine was imbedded in deposits of absolutely 

 later date than the tichoihine species. At Brentford it is associated 

 with Reindeer, and at Bielbecks with Cave-Lion and Mammoth. 

 "Whether or not, like the Hippopotamus major and Elephas antiquus, 

 it lived in Pliocene times, and can be viewed as an animal that 

 lingered on into the Pleistocene, is altogether an open question, as 

 its correlation with the continental species is by no means satisfac- 

 torily decided. There is no proof of its having inhabited Preglacial 

 Britain, as the remains from the Forest-bed on the Cromer shore in 

 the collection of Mr. Fitch, of Norwich, ascribed by Professor Owen 

 to B. leptorhinus, viewed by the light of other remains in the 

 cabinets of the Rev. S. W. King and the Rev. J. Gunn, belong to 

 the new and undescribed Pliocene species the Bhinoceros Etruscus of 

 Dr. Falconer. In a word, the localities in Britain in which Bhino" 

 ceros leptorhinus has been found, and its association with other spe- 



