NOTES AND QUEIIIHS. 
151 
PossiL Remains from Tektiahy Stiiata at Peckham and Dulwicii. 
— Siu, — Having paid some considcniblc amount of attention to tlic works in 
progress for the Great High Level Sewer, on tlie south side of the Thames, 
allow me to offer a few remarks on the fauna and llora diseoverable in the series 
of deposits passed tlirough both in the open cutting at Peckham and the tunnel 
at Dulwich. No one can doubt theii- analogy to the Woolwich and Heading 
series. 
First, then, at Peckham I have collected Tahulin/c, and associated with them 
what has the appearance of their opcrcula. The Paludiua-band is eight inches 
in thickness, quite indurated, and about forty -five to fifty feet from the surface. 
On splitting open these blocks, fine casts of Unioiiidte, with fish-scales and 
spines, are exposed, amidst a perfect pavement of Falud'ma lenta. Here and 
there a remarkable shell occurs, which seems referable to the marine genus 
Valuta ; but as true marine beds are La innnediate contact both above and 
below, it may be a derivative fossil. This hypothesis, however, is not borne 
out by tlieir occurrence in the marine strata, or rather what may be considered 
estuarine deposits. In these are great numbers of two varieties of oysters, 
Ostrea teiiera and Ostrea eduluia, Mi/tilus, Ci/reua cuneiforniis, Cerithium, Mela- 
nia inquuiata, Turritella imhricatana, and a very beautif id Area, at present uu- 
described. I must not omit to mention that the oysters have frequently 
Calijptrea trochef ormis adhering to them. In your number for February Mr. 
Evans mentions having discovered the elytron or wing-case of a species 
of Dytiscus. With the most careful serutmy I have not found any insect- 
remains as yet ; but I met with a portion of fish-scale, which at first sight 
appears so much like a wing-ease, that I was at the moment prepared to 
indorse Mr. Evans' statement. Traces of lignite close up the Peckham 
catalogue. 
In the Five Fields, Dul^\ach, a tunnel-shaft introduces us at fifty feet to the 
plastic clay, charged with the remains of the Lower Eocene flora. I must refer 
the geological reader to the admirable paper by Mr. PrestAiach, published 
in the Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society, vol. x., 1854, illus- 
trative of his researches iu analogous deposits at Reading, and Mr. De la 
Condamine's, at Counter HiU. The plate which accompanies it figures speci- 
mens identical with those collected by myself at Dulwich with one exception. 
My specimens yield one form not figui'cd by Mr. Prestwieh ; it looks as if re- 
lated to Conifene. 
The general reader may be interested to know that leaves of oak, maple, 
poplar, and willow are abundant, associated with estuarine shells — Cyrena 
deperdita and C. ciiiieiformis ; and a new species occiu', which I ])ropose to call 
Cyrena Didiciehieiisis. In some cases it was possible to take hold of the stem, 
and Lift a portion of the leaf from the clay. How interesting is the thought 
that iu tills age we should be able to handle the autumnal leaves, maybe, of 
forests that flourished during the umreekoned eons of the Lower Tertiary epoch. 
These leafy remains sometimes form, as it were, a thin blackish carpet over 
several square feet of clay-surface. 
I believe this is the first time that remains of a flora on an extensive scale 
have been discovered within the metropolitan area of the London basin. 
Apologising for trespassing so much upon your space, I am, your obedient ser- 
vant, Charles Rickman, Hon. Ciu-ator Lambeth Museum of Natural History. 
P.S. Since writing the above I have seen a mammalian bone, highly charged 
with iron pyrites, found in a greenish sand, below the leafy deposit ; and have 
myself discovered a ventral scute of the crocodile, associated with drifted 
wood, bored by teredines. 
Letter from Mr. Salter on Major Atjstin's Paper on the Silurian 
Rocks of Ireland, and on Mr. Lee's Discovery of the Pteraspis in 
