198 



THE GEOLOGIST. 



ORIGINALi COMMHISriOATIONS. 



On the occurrence of the bones of the Mammoth in Blue Marl 

 {above the weald clay)^ in the valley of the Medioay ; being 

 an extract from a letter received from W, J. West, Esq. 

 M.R.C.S, 



Mr. Barlow has handed me your note to him, and 

 requested me to reply to it. The only portions of the 

 remains of the mammoth which Mr. Barlow preserved, are 

 two teeth, a portion of the ilium, tibia, and a very small 

 fragment of the tusk. I have one of the teeth in my collec- 

 tion, and it has all the characteristic marks of the true fossil 

 species ; the laminse of these molar teeth are narrower and 

 more numerous than those of the Indian elephant, and the 

 lines of the enamel, which separate the divisions of the 

 laminee, more slender and less festooned in the fossil tooth. 

 I have carefully compared it with a recent tooth and a fossil 

 tooth from the Norfolk-crag, with the latter of which it cor- 

 responds ; the size is also greater than the recent; it weighs 

 6lbs. lloz., and not mineralized, or as it is called petrified. 

 The next bone of interest is the ilium, from the size of the 

 acetabulum, which is eight inches in its largest diameter, 

 and six in its shortest. 



The tibia had its head, or upper articulating surface, 

 perfect, being eight inches in diameter, and the shaft of the 

 base twenty inches long, although the lower articulating sur- 

 face is broken off. 



The small portion of the tusk was six inches in diameter. 



Judging from comparison, I should think the above was 

 a full grown animal ; indeed it could not have been a young 

 one, from the appearance of the teeth and of the bones. 



These remains were not found imbedded in weald clay, 

 as has been stated, but in h\\xe marl, under a bed of gravel, 



