PKOCEEDIHGS  OE  THE  GEOLOGICAL  SOCIETY. 
7S 
[May  1893. 
considering  the  Pleistocene  history  of  the  South  of  England.  It  so 
happened  that  as  long  ago  as  1813  some  Elephant’s  teeth  were 
discovered  near  Dewlish,  a  village  in  the  hilly  Chalk  country  which 
lies  between  Plandford  and  Dorchester.  These  found  their  way 
into  the  Plackmore  Museum  at  Salisbury,  and  were  generally  regarded 
as  the  teeth  of  Elephas  meridioncilis.  It  is  a  somewhat  curious 
instance  of  prejudice  on  the  part  of  an  eminent  palaeontologist  that 
the  late  Dr.  Leith  Adams  could  not  bring  himself  to  allow  that 
these  remains  belonged  to  the  Cromer  Eorest-hed  species,  simply 
because  that  species  had  never  been  found  so  far  to  the  westward. 
Accepting  the  general  palaeontological  determination  as  the  true  one, 
Mr.  Eisher  and  Mr.  Mansel-Pleydell  set  to  work,  two  or  three  years 
ago,  to  investigate  the  locality,  and  their  efforts  were  rewarded  by 
finding  further  traces  of  Elejohas  meridionalis  on  the  same  spot. 
Inferences  of  considerable  geological  interest  may  possibly  be 
drawn  from  this  discovery,  if  we  admit  that  the  species  is  rightly 
determined.  Whether  we  regard  the  Eorest-bed  series  as  Pliocene 
or  Pleistocene  is  merely  a  question  of  detail,  as  to  where  a  line 
should  be  drawn.  Put  it  seems  only  reasonable  to  suppose  that 
the  deposit  at  Dewlish  is  approximately  of  the  same  age,  though  no 
doubt  the  confirmation  of  an  associated  fauna  would  be  desirable. 
Such  being  the  case,  the  history  of  a  deposit  like  this,  if  successfully 
worked  out,  might  yield  important  evidence  in  relation  to  the 
sculpture  of  the  district  and  to  the  period  during  or  since  which  it 
has  been  effected.  In  this  way  also  we  might  find  some  means  for 
testing  the  conclusions  of  Prestwich  with  regard  to  the  presumed 
inland  equivalents  of  his  Westleton  Peds,  and  the  events  which  he 
believes  to  have  happened  since  they  were  laid  down. 
The  Authors  in  the  first  instance  concluded  that  the  deposit  at 
Dewlish  had  been  water-borne,  and  that  it  had  been  undercut  into 
the  face  of  the  escarpment,  which  is  very  steep  at  that  spot,  rising 
about  100  feet  above  the  bottom  of  the  valley.  Had  this  been  the 
coirect  inference,  it  was  evident  that  the  valley  had  been  deepened 
to  the  extent  of  some  90  feet  since  the  Elephant- remains  were 
deposited.  Put  further  investigation  has  convinced  Mr.  Mansel- 
Pleyaell  that  this  leading,  as  represented  in  the  section  accompany¬ 
ing  the  paper,  is  not  the  true  one.  The  deposit,  in  fact,  lies  in  a 
kind  of  narrow  fissure,  which  is  situated  on  the  brow  of  the  escarp¬ 
ment,  almost  at  right  angles  to  the  trend  of  the  valley  itself.  It 
would  seem,  therefore,  that  the  deposit  is  altogether  independent  of 
the  present  gorge,  and  may  possibly  be  older  than  its  initiation, 
