472 
JOURNAL OF THE PLYMOUTH INSTITUTION. 
the camel, the giraffe, and a small rodent of the size of a mouse 
as contributing to the contents of this ancient charnel. But in 
this, so far as I am aware, he stands alone. 
The fauna of Oreston differs materially from that of Kent's 
Hole. It does not supply the great sabre-toothed tiger, Machairo- 
dus latidens, nor the Irish elk. On the other hand, Kent's Hole 
has neither Equus plicidens, Asinus fossilis, nor the lesser bison. 
And there are several lesser variations. 
I pass away from the caverns for a while. We have in this 
locality an interesting series of alluvial deposits of varying age 
and character. The oldest are those beds of earth, intermixed with 
fragments of slate lying for the most part horizontally, which 
occur high up on the slopes of some of our valleys, and are of 
kindred origin to the ordinary river gravels. The newest occupy 
the creeks and higher portions of our estuaries, as at Lipson and 
Chelson Meadow, or at Puslinch on the Yealm, where a boring has 
been made of over forty feet without finding bottom. 
The most interesting series are those which have from time to 
time been discovered on the Hoe. The highest point of the Hoe, 
which has a plateau of some width, is 110 feet above mean tide 
level, and the average height of the plateau is about 100. Mid- 
way on the Hoe extensive excavations revealed the existence of 
the deposits which I desire to describe. 
Below the ordinary turfy soil there is a bed of earth more or 
less clayey in character, through which are scattered numerous 
pebbles. This varies in depth up to four or five feet, and contains 
patches of white and red clay appearing to graduate, partially at 
least, into the less distinctively clayey soil by which they are 
surrounded. With the clay are small veins of sand tending down- 
wards to larger arenaceous deposits, which have not been bottomed. 
The matrix of the pebbles differs in no respect from the ordinary 
alluvium of an ordinary river valley ; unless in the occurrence of 
the patches of clay. 
The pebbles scattered through it range from a very small size up 
to boulders a dozen pounds or more in weight. They are chiefly 
quartzose, some apparently a mixture of quartz and schorl, others 
granitoid in character, though rather resembling an elvan than a 
true granite ; with a few of a dark hard slate. There are likewise 
fragments of limestone more or less waterworn ; but the pebbles 
are unquestionably travelled. 
