820 



EEV. 0. FISHEE OlS' THE OCCUREENCE OF 



the deposit I found the gravel much coarser and subangular; and 

 here I met with a portion of a nearly worn-down molar (exhibited). 

 I did not see any vestige of shells ; but I found some extremely 

 curiously polished flints, of which more anon. 



Lady Michel, the present owner of the property, most courteously 

 gave me the loan of the two molars which were obtained in 1813, 

 and are now in her possession. Mr. Mansel-Pleydell has since 

 carried on excavations with great success. He has sent me a section 

 of the gravel-beds ; and it is interesting to compare it with that 

 made by Mr. Hall 75 years ago. 



Mr. Hall's Section. 



1. Chalk about 3 feet. 



2. White clay 2 „ 



3. Sand 3 „ 



4. Chalk 2 „ 



5. Grayel with large flints ... 3 „ 



6. White clay 2 „ 



7. Chalk 



Mr. Mansel-Pleydell's Section. 



1. Mould about 3 inches. 



2. Chalk rubble 10 „ 



3. Fine impalpable sand 



and flints, remains of 

 elephant 3 feet. 



4. Sand and ferruginous 



gravel ? 



5. Flint material, water- 



borne ? 



6. Sand, the lower portion 



with different-sized 

 flints ? 



7. Chalk ? 



Mr. Mansel-PleydeU has sent me some small samples of the various 

 kinds of gravel that he met with. The fine sand consists of sub- 

 angular grains of quartz with a few well-rounded grains probably of 

 limonite, for they are not attracted by the magnet. 



We were both of opinion that the deposit has been water-borne, 

 and is not the contents of a pot-hole. It is not deposited upon a 

 shelf of chalk, but is undercut into the face of the escarpment. The 

 length from North to South is considerable, but has not been 

 exactly ascertained. The explanation seems to be that, when the 

 stream formerly flowed 90 feet higher than it does at present, at 

 this point it undercut a cliff-like chalk-bank. A somewhat similar 

 relation of the stream to a chalk-bank may now be seen on the 

 north side of Poundbury, near Dorchester, and under similar cir- 

 cumstances of faulting on the south side of Maiden Castle. In esti- 

 mating the lapse of time which is indicated by a difference of 90 feet 

 between the former and present levels of the stream, it must be 

 borne in mind that all surface-features are more emphasized in the 

 "West of England than they are in the East, the land ajjpearing to 

 have been always in a state of greater unrest. One might have 

 attributed the elevation to a movement on the line of fault, had not 

 the deposit been upon its downcast side. Had the elephants (for 

 more than one individual has been entombed at the spot) been 

 E. primigenius or E. antiqvus, their occurrence would hardly need 

 to have been chronicled ; but E. meridioncdis being, so far as it is 

 known in this country, a pre-glacial species, this renders its occur- 



