§ 18. FOSSIL ELEPHANTS OF THE THAMES. 149 



as having formerly inhabited the country irrigated by the 

 Thames ; yet such was unquestionably the case at no very 

 remote epoch, when probably the land of England was 

 united to the Continent, and the river extended over a 

 much larger area than it has occupied since many centuries 

 before the Roman advent. 



The banks of the Thames, and of its tributary streams, 

 are in great part composed of an ancient alluvial silt or 

 brick-earth, many yards in thickness, containing, in certain 

 localities, mammalian bones in considerable abundance, with 

 interspersions of existing species of land and river shells.* 

 At Erith this deposit reaches to 40 feet above the river, 

 and near Maidstone to 60 feet. 



At Grays in Essex (opposite Gravesend) these deposits 

 may be seen to advantage in sections exposed in the exten- 

 sive brick-fields. The beds consist of — 1. Gravel and 

 sand ; 2. Loamy sand and brick-earth ; 3. Ferruginous 

 sand, shells, and gravel ; 4. The Chalk, which forms the 

 foundation rock of the country. From this locality alone 

 have been obtained numerous bones of the Elephant, Rhi- 

 noceros, Hippopotamus, Horse, Ox, Deer, Irish Elk, Yole, 

 Bear, Hyena, and Monkey. 



Scarcely any traces of trees or plants have been met with, 

 yet it is obvious that the country which supported these 

 large herbivora, must have had an abundant vegetation. 



18. Fossil elephants of other parts of England. 

 — Along the eastern coast of England, and off the mouth of 

 the Thames, teeth, tusks, and bones of elephants and other 

 mammalia, are often dredged up by the fishermen, having 



* There is a species of Cyrena, supposed to be identical with 

 one that now exists in Alexandria; and an Unio, of which the ana- 

 logue lives in the lakes and rivers of Auvergne : neither are known as 

 British species. See a highly interesting memoir on these deposits, 

 and their fossil remains, by John Morris, Esq. (of Kensington), 

 author of "A Catalogue of British Fossils," &c. ; ,Mag. Xat. Hist, 

 vol. ii. p. 539. 



