20G 
DEPOSITS or DOUBTFUL AGE. 
Beyond the area already described, we find dotted over various 
parts of the south of England, small isolated masses of gravel, 
not entirely of local origin. These often cap the highest points. 
For instance, on the Blackdown and Haldon Hills, in Devonshire, 
they occur on plateaus 800 feet above the sea, separated from 
any other high land by deep valleys. Though many of these 
deposits are possibly of Pliocene age, it is useless to attempt any 
description of them here, for, for anything we yet know, they 
may be of any date from Eocene to Older Pleistocene. This 
question is now being worked out duiring the progress of the 
new Drift Survey. 
One deposit, undoubtedly of Pliocene age, remains to be 
described—that at Dewlish, in Dorsetshire. This locality has 
been left till last, because though the bed seems to belong to the 
Upper Pliocene series, there is at present no sufficient evidence 
to settle its exact position. Geographically it is widely separated 
from the fossiliferous Pliocene deposits of East Anglia, and it is 
quite as much connected with certain deposits in France, which 
will be referred to in the next chapter. 
Dewlish is a small village lying about six miles north-east of 
Dorchester, in the middle of the Chalk Downs. A long dip- 
slope causes the height of the Downs to fall towards the south, 
and the gravel now to be described lies about three miles from 
the edge of the Chalk escarpment; and at a much lower level. 
The Eocene strata a short distance to the south rise to about the 
same height as the gravel. 
The history of the discovery of elephant remains at this spot is 
fully described by the Eev. 0. Fisher.* It is curious that the 
occurrence here of Elephas meridionalis should have attracted 
so little attention, but the specimens first found were referred by 
several competent observers to E. antiqims. Thus they excited 
less interest than would otherwise have been the case. Teeth of 
elephant were found as long ago as 1813, and in 1870 the species 
was recorded as Elephas meridionalis, on the authority of 
Mr. Ayshford Sanford.t During 1887 Mr. Fisher took up the 
question, and he and Mr. Mansel-Pleydell made excavations 
which showed the character of the deposit, and led to the 
discovery of more bones. More recently I have examined the 
surrounding district, for the purpose of ascertaining the rela¬ 
tion of the gravel to the existing contours, and to see what 
connection might be traced between the Pliocene strata and the 
present lines of drainage. 
The locality from which the bones were obtained lies close to 
Dewlish, but on the opposite (east) side of the Devil’s Brook, the 
exact spot being 150 yards north-east of the foot-bridge. Above 
the stream there is a steep bluff of Chalk, with the unusually 
high slope of 25°, facing the village. This bluff rises to a height 
* Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc., vol.. xliv., p. 818. (1888.) 
t Fliut Chips, by Joseph Stevens. 8vo. Loudon, 1870. 
