154 



THE GEOLOGIST. 



stratum appears to have no other species of sea-shell intermingled ; the 

 terminal whorl and apex of a univalve, however, was just perceptible, 

 which, on careful removal from the matrix, proved to be Helix aspersa. 

 This bed is about a mile from the present sea-shore.' 



" The same gentleman has also observed either one or two strata of 

 shells in the sand-hills, on the shore between Leasowe and Hoylake. Not 

 having visited the spot for some years, however, he can only report from 

 memory that they are composed exclusively of cockle-shells. It is worthy 

 of remark that these beds are situated very close to the place where the 

 Anglo-Saxon antiquities were found at the Great Meol3. 



" May we not infer that these shell-strata are composed of the castaway 

 refuse of mollusks, which had been consumed as food by our prehistoric 

 ancestors ?"* 



Mammalian [Remains. — Dr. Collingwood, in the course of his paper 

 " On the Ancient Fauna of Lancashire and Cheshire, "f records the follow- 

 ing: — Hippopotamus : " of which a complete skull is figured in Leigh's ' Na- 

 tural History of Lancashire ' (1705), dug up under a moss " (tab. vi. fig. 4e%). 

 Megaceros : " antlers, in marl or gravel, beneath peat," in Lancashire. 

 Bos primigenius : from " submarine forest." Cetacean: rib of, from exca- 

 vations at Wallasey Pool ; and humerus of a tvhale, from peat of submarine 

 forest, opposite Leasowe Castle. Cervus elaphus : Pennant says that horns, 

 " evidently of the stag kind, but much stronger, thicker, heavier, and 

 furnished with fewer antlers than those of the present race, have been 

 found on the sea-coast of Lancashire " (Phil. Tr., JN T o. 422) ; and a single 

 horn was dug out of the sands near Chester ( Brit. Zool., vi. p. 62) ; four 

 horns from Wallasey Pool. Hopkins transmitted the sketch of an antler 

 to the Royal Society (figured in vol. xxxvii. ~No. 422, Phil. Trans.) ; this 

 was drawn out of Pavensbarrow Hole, adjoining Holker Old Park, Lan- 

 cashire, by the nets of the fishermen, in 1727 ; similar horns from the sub- 

 marine forest of Leasowe ; other horns described and figured by Leigh in 

 Nat. Hist. Lancas., pi. 5, as "head of a stag of Canada" (i.e. Cervus 

 Canadensis, the Wapiti), an error ; the former being those of the red-deer, 

 found " 8 yards within the marie " in Lancashire ; and one as huge again, 

 " 4 yards under the moss in the Meales ; " also others in Camden (Brit., 

 iii. p. 142). Elk or moose-deer (?), 1845, in submarine forest of Leasowe, 

 according to Dr. Watson, on the identification of Dr. Scouler ; also Mr. 

 Geo. Thompson, " head and antlers " in 1857. The specimens are said to 

 be deposited in King's College Museum ; but Dr. Pollok, the Curator, says 

 they do not exist in that collection. Horse • " almost entire skeleton of a 

 small size, equalling the Shetland pony in height, and remarkable for the 

 large proportion of the head ; " found by Mr. E. T. Higgins, of Eastington, 

 Gloucestershire, in the ancient forest-bed of Leasowe ; also Sus, roebuck (?), 

 and " a dog [or wolf, — S.J.M.] about the size of a greyhound." Boar : 

 " tusks, in digging a cellar at Lancaster, in company with Roman remains." 

 Man: human skull, in sandy gravel, 10 feet below the original bed of 



* Several remains of Mollusca characterize the glacial deposits on the hanks of the 

 Mersey, such as Tellina solid/da, Nucula oblong a, Cardium, Kassa, and particularly 

 Turritella communis, which passes upward from the sandy gravel of the lower drift de- 

 posit into the houlder-clay ahove. From a well sunk at Poolton, in Wiiral, fragments 

 of Mactra, Venus, Astaite (?), and other shells were also obtained. 



f Proceedings of the Liverpool Philosophical Society, 1863, part xvii. 



% Also figured by Buckland in Pel. Dil. part xxii. fig. 5, and mentioned by Owen in 

 Br. Fos. Mam. p. 4*0 1. 



