1849.] MORRIS ON MAMMALIAN REMAINS AT BRENTFORD. 203 



The section above given, although differing in minor details, pre- 

 sents similar general characters to those recorded by Mr. Trimmer 

 as occurring in the clay-pits examined by him, one of which is more 

 than a mile distant ; there can be little doubt, therefore, of the syn- 

 chronism of this deposit ; the later excavations have also afforded, 

 with the exception of the hippopotamus, similar mammalian remains, 

 with the addition of the great cave tiger and reindeer. 



The shells were but few in number in this locality as compared 

 with the more eastward deposits in the Thames valley. After a 

 careful search, and with the assistance of Mr. Lay ton, I could only 

 find the following eight recent species : — 



Bithynia impura. Limnseus stagnalis. 



Succinea amphibia. Pisidium amnicum. 



Valvata piscinalis. Cyclas cornea. 



Limnaeus auricularis. Anodon anatina. 



Not even fragments of Cyrena tricjonula and TJnio littoralis, now 

 extinct (at least in England), were observed, although these species are 

 common at Ilford, Grays, Erith, Stutton, &c., where they are associated 

 with a large number of our present indigenous, fluviatile and ter- 

 restrial mollusca. 



From the general features, both physical and fossil, of this deposit, 

 which has now been traced over a considerable area in the neigh- 

 bourhood, I am inclined to consider it as resulting from fluviatile 

 action, and that at a period when a river, far more deep and extensive 

 than the present stream, flowed along the valley. Even allowing the 

 base of the deposit to be level with high-water, a river of considerable 

 depth must have existed, to have accumulated and arranged twenty 

 feet of solid materials, and that not in a very violent manner, for 

 scarcely any of the bones exhibit the least trace of attrition, most of 

 them being perfect, and many belonging to the same individual ; thus 

 rendering it nearly certain that they could not have been drifted from 

 any great distance, but were probably the remains of those animals 

 which lived and died not far from the banks of that stream, where 

 they subsequently became entombed in the same deposit with the 

 fluviatile mollusca. 



The mammalia associated together in this deposit consist of the 

 elephant, rhinoceros, hippopotamus, aurochs, short-horned ox, red 

 deer, reindeer, and the great cave tiger or lion ; the discovery of the 

 latter animal (a well-preserved ulna of which has been identified by 

 Prof. Owen) is highly interesting ; hitherto, I believe, the remains 

 of this carnivore have (with one exception, viz. that of North Cliff, 

 Yorkshire) been obtained only from the ossiferous caverns. 



The occurrence of the reindeer is a point equally interesting and 

 important, not only from its remains being but rarely found in this 

 country (two instances only being cited by Prof. Owen), but from 

 the association of this arctic form with other mammalia generally 

 considered indicative of a warm climate. Thus, its co-existence with 

 the great cave tiger, from the presumed tropical character of the 

 genus to which the latter belongs, might be regarded as somewhat 



