491 



REPORTS OF THE PROCEEDINGS OF GEOLOGICAL : 

 SOCIETIES. 



Greenwich Natural History CLrs.— On Saturday, August 21st, 1858, a 

 Field-day Meeting of this club took place at Bexley, Kent, under the guidance 

 and upon the invitation of Mr. Flasraan Spurrell. Tiie chief object of the 

 meeting was to examine the extensive excavations between Crayford and Erith, 

 from which a large nuoiber of Mammalian remains have been obtained, many of 

 them being in the possession of Mr. Spurrell, of Bexley, and Mr. Grantham, of 

 Crayford. Besides the members of the club, invitations were sent to some of the 

 leading naturalists and geologists. The unfavourable state of the weather 

 prevented a large attendance of members, and although the meeting was 

 not numerous, still it was very pleasant and instructive. The members 

 and friends were kindly received and hospitably entertained by Mr. Spurrell, 

 for, after viewing the extensive series of Mammalian bones and chalk 

 fossils, collected and preserved with taste and care, they sat down to an 

 elegant and substantial collation. Among the members present were .J. F. South, 

 Esq., Dr. Purvis, Dr. Bossey, Messrs. W. P. Lethbridge, H. T. Stainton. W. Groves, 

 the Rev. J. H. Knox, &c. Much interest was excited by Mr. Spurrell's collection, 

 which contains some fine specimens of Echinodermata from the chalk, and a large 

 series of fossil-remains of the elephant, horse, ox, deer, rhinoceros, cave-lion, &c., 

 obtained from the brick-earth deposits of Crayford and Erith. 



The members also visited Mr. Grantham, at Crayford, who has for many years 

 past taken considerable interest in the same ossiferous deposits, and has formed 

 a valuable and interesting collection. Amongst these choice specimens was a fine 

 example of the lower jaw and teeth of the Ekphas primigenius, which Mr. 

 Grantham has since most liberally presented to the Hunterian Museum, at the 

 Royal College of Sargeons. 



Mr. Grantham's collection had been previously visited by Dr. Falconer, who 

 identified remains of the following species — Elephas antiquus, Rhinoceros leptorUnus, 

 Equus (a large species), Cervm {Strongylocaras ?), Bos, and Fdis spekea, also Elephas 

 primigenius and RJdnoceros tichorhinus ; the two latter are considered by some to 

 belong to a newer period than that of the other animals. 



The party subsequently visited the brick-earth pits where these remains have 

 been found. 



The brick-earth or old rive'f-deposits of this locality repose on an abraded or 

 excavated surface of the lower tertiary sands and chalk. They consist of loam, 

 sands, and gravels. The bones above enumerated occur with a number of 

 Testacea. Most of the species of the latter are still existing in the adjoining 

 river ; two only being found elsewhere, I'nio littoralis of the south of Europe, and 

 a Cyrma, said to be identical with a species now living in the Nile. 



The interesting feature here to be noticed, namely, the occurrence of existing 

 molluscs with remains of extinct mammals, has been already brought forward in 

 Sir C Lyell's works, as evidence of the comparative tenacity of existence shown 

 by moUuscan species. 



Among the rarer bones are those of the great Cave-Lion [Felis spelcBo), which 

 must have carried devastation amongst the herds of Herbivora, some of them of 

 gigantic proportions, that pastured in the woods and wilds of this country, then 

 probably not dissevered from Europe. 



The association of the two species of Elephant, and the two of Rhinoceros 

 is here to be remarked, inasmuch as the E. antiquus and the R. hp^orhinus are 

 regarded as of an cider date than the other species of the same genera here associated 

 together. It is earnestly recomoiended, therefore, that as far as possible, in 

 collecting the bones and teeth from these deposits, attention should be given as to 

 the actual place of the specimens in the several layers of loam, &c., so that those 

 occurring in the upper part should not be indiscriminately mixed with those taken 



2 if 2 



