ELEPHAS MEEIDIOT^ALIS AT DEWLI8H, DORSET. 810 



my old friend, Mr. Mansel-Pleydell, F.G.S., P.L.S., heard that I 

 was coming, and met me there. Mr. Kent possessed a molar found 

 in 1883, and also now exhibited. 



Fig' 1. — Section of Chalk- Escarpment at Dewlish, Dorsetsliire. 

 (Scale 100 feet to 1 inch.) 



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a. El 



3phant-bed. 







The locality from which these remains have been obtained is 

 situated just opposite the village, near the top of a remarkably 

 steep, straight escarpment of a plateau of chalk, facing the west, 

 and is in a district consisting entirely of chalk. The angle of the 

 hill was estimated by me by the eye to be about 55°. But Mr. 

 Pleydell considers it more steep than that. He has measured the 

 position of the pit, if such it can be called, and has found it 90 

 feet above the foot of the hill, and 10 feet below its brow (fig. 1). 

 The opposite side of the valley, in which the village is situated, 

 rises with a gentle slope towards the East. The escarpment trends 

 nearly North and South, and the Geological Survey map shows 

 it to be on the course of a fault, which, where it runs out among 

 the subjacent strata to the North, appears to be downcast towards 

 the East. This shows that the scarp has not been caused by 

 elevatory action: but the eff'ect of the fault may possibly have 

 been to harden the chalk along its course, and to turn up the edges 

 of the beds, both of which effects would present obstacles to its 

 denudation. A very remarkable circumstance is, that there is not a 

 trace of a gravel terrace or the slightest outward indication of the 

 existence here of anything except chalk, so that, had it not been for 

 the geological explorations of the monse, the deposit probably 

 would have remained concealed to the present day. A small stream 

 called the Dewlish runs near, but not close to, the bottom of the hill. 



Upon my visit, which lasted only two or three hours, with a man 

 to dig for me, I did not get sufficiently into the deposit to observe 

 any distinct stratification. I found only some angular gravel, 

 impacted in an extremely fine sandy silt, and in this were numerous 

 fragments of ivory, disseminated, forming a constituent part of the 

 gravel, much as other stones would do*. Towards the bottom of 



* Possibly this had been disturbed in 1814. 



