OVIBOS MOSCHATUS IN THE FOREST-BED. 



581 



and fast barrier between one fauna and another, and cannot be said 

 to define the close of one geological period and the beginning of 

 another. 



Discussion. 



The President called attention to the variation in the skulls of 

 living musk-sheep, connected with sex and age. 



Prof. Peestwich expressed some doubts as to whether Prof. 

 Dawkins had established satisfactorily the fact that the specimen had 

 come from the Forest-bed. It was found, not in the Forest-bed 

 itself, but at Trimingham, four miles from Cromer, and where 

 mammalian remains abound from more recent deposits. Hence, 

 he thought that the geological horizon of the fossil was not proved. 

 As regards the occurrence of Ovibos in the Thames valley, it was a 

 wide question as to whether the beds at Crayford were Preglacial. 

 For his part he did not see how these could be separated from others 

 at Grays and elsewhere, which were pretty certainly Postglacial. 



Mr. J. Evans said that, in the case of a dredged fossil, strong 

 evidence as to the locality was needed. However, he saw no reason 

 why the animal should not be Preglacial. Still he did not think that 

 the Crayford-bed could be safely regarded as Preglacial. The im- 

 plements of human origin which had been found there were flakes 

 such as hitherto had not been attributed to the very earliest palaeo- 

 lithic type. At Green Street Green, also, Ovibos had been found 

 with implements which seem most probably Postglacial. Man might 

 have migrated with Ovibos ; but it would be singular if in so long 

 an interval of time there had been no change in his weapons. 



Prof. Botd Dawkins said the specimen was brought by fishermen 

 to Mr. Buxton. He had no information that it was dredged. From 

 the physical character and the matrix he thought it a Forest-bed 

 specimen. As regards the age of the Crayford deposits, he was 

 unable to agree with the speakers. The Crayford deposits had no 

 erratics ; the ordinary gravels of the Thames — at Maidenhead, for 

 instance — had. As regards the supposed interval of time between 

 the Preglacial and Postglacial type of Hiver-drift man, he thought 

 that the wide extent of the type over India, the Mediterranean 

 shores, Europe, and even America, proved a long existence in time. 

 River-drift man probably arrived in Europe prior to the Glacial 

 epoch. 



