66 
LOCAL OCCURRENCES IN NATURAL HISTORY. 
bands of Sand of considerable thickness, and occasionally interspersed with Car¬ 
bonaceous veins which seem the result of the decay of some ligneous matters 
accidentally dispersed with the G ravel. The depth of this Gravelly deposit varies 
from eight to sixteen feet, and I believe no where exceeds eighteen. Its 
comparative antiquity is obvious from its employment in the mounts and em¬ 
bankments of old earthworks and donjons, as at Worcester; and in the vicinity 
of the Roman camp at Kempsey, four miles south of Worcester, the sepulchral 
cysts containing the urns and ashes of the deceased soldiers are formed in the 
partially-consolidated Gravel. In many instances the Gravel has fallen in upon 
the cysts, and broken the urns. A few years ago I remember Captain Smith, of 
Kempsey, bringing to me a Copper fibula of a Roman or Auxiliary which had 
been found among this Gravel, suggesting a train of curious reflection, and I have 
since seen many broken urns, which Mr. Jabez Allies,* of Worcester, had 
obtained from the same spot by favour of the former gentleman, on whose land 
the Gravel-pit is worked. But the most remarkable fact attendant upon these 
Gravel-beds, is the circumstance of the fossil bones and teeth of several large 
quadrupeds being found in them, which were never known to have inhabited this 
country, at least during any period to which history or tradition can reach, while 
where the Gravel comes in contact with the Red Marl at the bottom of the beds, 
the research of my learned friend Mr. Jabez Allies has recently brought to light 
the existence of marine shells of modern genera and species , some of which, where 
the Gravel was moist, w~ere in as perfect a state as if just taken from the margin 
of the ocean. This latter occurrence has justly excited considerable surprise 
among geologists. I have seen some very perfect teeth of the Rhinoceros from 
Fleet’s Bank, near Sandlin, as well as molars of the Elephant from this spot and 
the Gravel-beds at Powick, west of the Severn; and bones of various other 
animals have been found, which I believe may be seen in the Museum of the 
Natural History Society at Worcester. Mr. Hugh Strickland presented to 
the same collection some bones and tusks of the Hippopotamus found in a 
Gravelly mass at Cropthorne; these were in company -with fresh-water shells 
still occurring in the present day, which seems to give them a character different 
to those of the Gravel westward of the Severn, where no fresh-water shells occur. 
Mr. Allies, in his tvork on the Old Red Sandstone, mentions the bones of the 
Cow, Sheep, and Hog, as being grouped together in one Gravel-bed at Powick, 
from which he infers (though surely erroneously), that “ this county was not 
only inhabited by such animals, but also by Man, before the flood, and that 
it was considerably advanced in civilization.”f Bones of domestic animals must, 
* The Analyst for April 1836, contains a paper by Mr. Allies on the “ Roman Antiquities 
discovered in Worcestershire.” 
t Allies On Curious Indentations in Old Red Sandstone , 8vo., p. 86. Edwards, London. 
