Vol. 50.] FAUNA FROM THE IGHTHAM FISSURE. 189 



Belvedere, and more recently by his son, Mr. F. C. J. Spurrell, 

 which has lately been presented to the National Collections by 

 the last-named gentleman. Although so much has been achieved 

 for the larger Pleistocene mammalia, little or nothing was done, 

 until the last few years, in the way of collecting the smaller 

 vertebrates of these deposits. The admirable results obtained in this 

 direction by Dr. Blackmore ' and Mr. W. A. Sanford 2 in the West of 

 England, and by Mr. Clement Reid 3 in the Norfolk Forest Bed, by 

 means of careful washing, led me to suggest to several friends the 

 desirability of collecting in the same manner the small vertebrates 

 of the South-east of England. Something has already been done by 

 Mr. R. W. Cheadle and by Mr. F. C. J. Spurrell 4 ; and the mag- 

 nificent series now exhibited is, with very few exceptions, the result 

 of enthusiastic collecting by Mr. Lewis Abbott, who was the first to 

 recognize the importance of the remains from this fissure, although 

 a few specimens had previously been obtained by Mr. B. Harrison, 

 of Ightham, whose collection of rude implements from the higher- 

 level gravels of that neighbourhood is well known. The small 

 bones from this fissure, when first found, were very friable, but are 

 now, after Mr. Abbott's careful preparation with gelatine, in an 

 admirable state of preservation ; they represent mammals, birds, 

 reptiles, and amphibians ; but no fishes have been met with, 

 although their remains have been diligently sought for. 



I am under obligation to the officers of the British Museum 

 and of the Royal College of Surgeons for the facilities afforded to 

 me when working at the osteological collections under their charge. 

 The Hunterian Museum series in the latter institution was found 

 especially advantageous for the comparison of this large and varied 

 series of fossils. 



The remains of each species will now be passed in review, and, 

 finally, some remarks will be made on the conditions under which 

 they have been accumulated, and their relation to the Pleistocene 

 faunas of other localities. 



II. Review of the Species. 



Amphibia. 



Rana temporaria. (Common Frog.) PI. X. figs. 1-3. — The re- 

 mains of frogs in this fissure are far more numerous than those of 

 any other animal. Nearly the whole of them are referable to the 

 common species R. temporaria, and they include, together with 

 nearly all other parts of the skeleton, the characteristic male 

 humerus with its strong, backwardly directed ridges, the biconcave 

 penultimate vertebra and proccelous sacrum, the comparatively 



1 See 'Flint Chips,' by Edw. T. Stevens, 8vo, London, 1870; also Blackmore 

 and Alston, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1874, p. 460. 



2 Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. -vol. xxvi. (1870) p. 124. 



3 Mem. Geol. Surv., Vertebrata of the Forest Bed Series (1882). 

 * Geol. Mag. 1890, p. 452. 



