606 MR. S. 11. WABREX OX THE [vol. lxxix, 



23. The Elephas-antiquvs Bed of Cuactox-on-Sea (Essex) 

 and its Floka and Fauna. By Samuel Hazzledine 

 Warrex, F.G.S. (Bead February 28th, 1923.) 



The elephant-remains from the Pleistocene deposits of the Essex 

 coast have attracted interest and curiosity which can be traced back 

 to the twelfth century, during the reign of Richard the First. 



Camden's ' Britannia ' of 1610 refers as follows to the remains 

 from Walton-on-the-Naze : — 



' What hath been found in this place, have heere out of the words and 

 credit of Ralphe, the Monke of Coggeshall, who wrot 350 years agoe : " In 

 King Richard's time, on the sea-shore, at a village called Erdulphnesse 

 [Walton-on-the-Naze], were found two teeth of a certain Giant, of such a 

 huge bignesse, that two hundred such teeth as men have now a daies might 

 be cut out of them. These I saw at Coggeshall." ' 



In 1S03 a fall in the low cliff, at about a mile south-south-west 

 of the Naze, exposed to view a skeleton described as being 30 feet 

 long, and having molars weighing 7 and 12 pounds each. 1 



I have never seen the Walton deposit, which is now permanently 

 buried under a considerable accumulation of sand ; but it is quite 

 probable that some temporary excavation, or exceptional storm, 

 may again expose it to view. 



1 am not aware of any reference to the elephant-bed of Clacton 

 prior to that made by John Brown, of Stanway, in the Magazine 

 of Natural History for 1S38 (n.s. vol. ii, p. 163). 



The eastern end of Essex is occupied by a nearly level plateau, 

 with a very gentle slope towards the sea, trenched by a series of 

 river- valleys. On this plateau, between the levels of 70 and 85 

 feet O.D., there are the remains of river-gravels, often much con- 

 torted, with Chellean implements. The most significant feature 

 of these gravels, to my mind, lies in the abundance of Lower 

 Greensand chert which they contain. 3 It seems impossible to 

 doubt that they are remnants of the 100-foot, or Boyne, Terrace 

 of the main Thames- Medway river, and are not the gravels of 

 local streams. 



The liver-gravels at lower levels, with their associated elephant- 

 beds, belong, however, not to the main river, but to the tributary 

 streams which trench the wide Boyne Terrace plateau, and now 

 have their outlet directly into the sea. Reasons will be given later 

 for concluding that, during the 50-foot (or Taplow) Terrace age, 

 the main valley off the present coast of Essex had been trenched 



1 See ' The Essex Naturalist ' vol. xiii (1904) p. 295. 



' This was written some time ago, before I had seen the paper by Prof. 

 J. W. Gregory on the ' Evolution of the Essex Rivers & of the Lower 

 Thames' (Colchester, Benham & Co., 1922). He, too, lays stress on the 

 abundance of the Lower Greensand chert from Kent in the gravels of the 

 Essex coast, although I am unable to agree with his suggestion that they are 

 Pliocene and represent the river-gravels of Walton-Crag age. 



