350 
FOSSIL HYENAS. 
and tlie continent. One solitary instance only is 
known of the occurrence of remains of this kind 
in the south-east of England. The lower jaw and 
a few fragments of other bones of a hyena were 
discovered, a few years since, in a chasm in a stone 
quarry at Boughton, near Maidstone. 
The next era is that during which the Crag, 
and the tertiary strata, and the chalk on which 
they repose, were lifted up to their present situ- 
ations ; the channel which separates England from 
France was broken through, and the transverse 
valleys of the north and south downs were produced 
or enlarged ; for, although these valleys are now 
river courses, yet it is obvious that they originated 
in disruption, for the strata, in every instance 
which I have observed, diverge from the line of 
fracture.* We should doubtless err in assigning 
all these mutations to one and the same period ; 
the phenomena are extremely complicated, and 
an appearance which may seem to have been pro- 
duced at the same time, and by a single operation, 
may have been the result of many and varied 
changes. There is, however, one fact respecting 
which there can be no hesitation, namely, that the 
disturbing forces which have broken up the ter- 
tiary deposits, came into action after the elephant 
epoch. These elevatory movements and convul- 
sions were manifestly of great intensity, and ma- 
* Mr. Woodward arrives at the same conclusion from an examin- 
ation of the chalk valleys of Norfolk. “ These,” he observes, “ are 
valkys of disruption ; that is, they were formed by the elevation of the 
chalk and its consequent fracture, as is evident from the strata of chalk 
and flints on each side the valley being now found to decline from 
the line of elevation.” — Correspondence with the Author. 
