466 BE. H. HICKS ON MAMMOTH AND OTHER 



The sands and gravels below the clay in these sections are usually 

 of a bright yellow colour, but in places they are more deeply iron- 

 stained. Large flints and masses of sarsen-stones were occasionally 

 found in the gravel, though on the whole the pebbles and fragments 

 were rather small. There were many well-rounded pebbles from 

 the Tertiary beds, but the majority of the flints were subangular. 

 A few pebbles of quartz and quartzite were found, and also frag- 

 ments derived from the Lower Greensand. There appeared to be 

 few, if any, very far-travelled rocks, such as are present in the 

 uppermost Boulder Clay, a few miles to the north. 



On the other hand, the materials resemble in a marked manner 

 those which occur in the sands and gravels which at Pinchley and 

 Hendon underlie the brown clay with 'race.' This brown clay 

 occurs below the Upper Boulder Clay, which contains large frag- 

 ments of chalk, large unworn flints, and numerous northern erratics, 

 and there is usually a varying thickness of unstratified gravel sepa- 

 rating the clays. 



§ 7. Conclusions. 



The old land-surface under Endsleigh Street, on which the 

 Mammoth died, is almost exactly 60 feet above the present sea-level. 



The deposits which subsequently accumulated over the remains 

 were evidently laid down in moderately tranquil water, otherwise 

 the bones, especially those of the young Mammoth, would not have 

 remained so near together. The epiphyses of the long bones were 

 found close to the shafts, and unless the animal was suddenly 

 buried in sediments accumulated in fairly quiet waters such as those 

 of a lake, the epiphyses would have been readily moved as soon as 

 the soft tissues and cartilage decayed. Except in caverns, where 

 the bones in their fresh state must have been carried in by hyaenas 

 and other beasts of prey, it has been difiicult in many cases to 

 determine the exact horizon at which the Mammoth lived, since the 

 bones have as a rule been removed from the spot where the animal 

 died, and re-deposited in newer sediments. Here, however, we have 

 the old land-surface, and evidence of the contemporaneous flora in 

 the loam in which the bones were embedded. 



An examination of the sections in this area, and also in adjoining 

 areas, shows that there is a well-marked sequence in the deposits. 

 Immediately over the bones there was, first, a fairly rough gravel ; 

 this was followed by a sandy gravel with smaller pebbles, and the 

 latter was overlain by a fine, somewhat loamy sand with occasional 

 seams of clay. Above this came the yellowish clay containing 

 ' race,' derived shells, and here and there patches of gravel and 

 scattered flints. It would appear from some of the sections that 

 there might also have been some sand and gravel, in places, over 

 the clay ; but as this sand and gravel was everywhere much stained 

 by percolation of water through the ' made ground,' I have preferred 

 not to mark it as distinct from the disturbed material. 



The following, in my opinion, are the main changes which may 

 be deduced from a study of the sediments, &c. : — 



