LETTERS FROM JOHN BROWN TO S. P. WOODWARD. I35 
valuable list of species which you kindly sent me in your last communica¬ 
tion. It does you very great credit. I have no doubt of its correctness ; 
and I beg leave to observe and to acknowledge to you that you are among 
my most valuable and talented correspondents, if not foremost among 
that number. But entre nous ; and long may we enjoy each others 
friendship without abatement or alloy, even up to the end of the chapter. 
With regard to the memoir to the Geol. Society, mentioned 
in your last letter, I beg to observe that I have drawn a section already of 
the recent cuttings of the Railway which exposed the bed from whence I 
collected the shells that compose your list. 
In the same sketch, I have represented the Freshwater formation that 
underlies the Pleistocene beds in geological order, but is more than a 
hundred yards from those beds. From the former I obtained the Valvata 
formerly sent, which was, I remember, very soon after that I had discovered 
the lucustrine {sic.) deposit. 
This position of the strata, you will see by the section, is quite distinct 
from the Post Tertiary beds, being cut off from them by the upper bed of 
diluvium, which covers the lucustrine beds. 
This sketch I could send, accompanied by a short memoir and a pretty 
long list of fossils from the deposit of detritus below the Freshwater beds, 
which Mr. Sowerby supplied more than two years ago, and which have not 
been published heretofore. 
My collection of fishes’ teeth, which you was so kind as to name for me 
as far as you could, I found in this detritus. 
As to the corals : an impenetrable mystery hangs over them, but, 
if desirable, I could send them, and probably some of the gentlemen present 
would recognize some of them. 
Or shall I draw up a short memoir on the Pleistocene beds only, to 
accompany your list for the Annals ? the Freshwater beds being recorded 
in that work already ? Pray which of the two plans shall I follow ? 
Mr. I. D. C. Sowerby has had by him for a long time past a variety of 
new Foraminifera from the Copford detritus, to be figured ; but up to the 
present time nothing that I am aware of has been [done] with them. 
The work of Professor Ehrenberg was waited for, to see if they cor¬ 
responded with any of his plates ; but I never could find out that that 
was the case. I believe his Foraminifera were more minute than mine. 
A neighbour of mine, Mrs. Mills (the head of the firm of Mills and Co., 
Bankers), has received an interesting fragment of a fossil Tusk from 
Grays, 2 feet 7m. long,6] inches at its largest diameter, and 4^ at its smaller 
one. At the request of that lady, I have mounted it for her, and a fine 
specimen it is. I shall be happy to show it you at some future time. 
Stanway, Feb. 4th, 1843. 
Many thanks to you for your useful hints respecting your list of shells. 
The same is also due from me to our excellent friend, Mr. S. Wood, for his 
observations, etc. 
I have sent you at this time some of the desiderata, by way of complet¬ 
ing the list, and I hope to meet with the remainder by the time I see you, 
if I do not send them before. I have also sent you the Section of that 
part of Copford Brick-field in which the beds occur whence the shells 
were derived, with a short Memoir to lay before the Geol. Society. 
The Teeth and Corals being upon boards, it is difficult to send them 
with the Memoir and Section. But will they be wanted at all ? If so, I 
must either send or bring them with me. I last night met with some 
perfect specimens of A plexus hipnorum [sic] which I beg of you to accept, 
w r ith a few more C laics iTia [sic.] 
I send also a few specimens of Cyrena from Grays. 
Feb. 10 th, 1843. 
I have sent more of the desiderata, by way of completing the list, and 
