Page:Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London, vol. 26.djvu/323

1870.] LLOYD — AVON AND SEVERN VALLEYS. 215 Peat-beds. — A bed of peat about 8 ft. thick, resting on gravel, was cut through some years ago at Chadbury ; in it many horns oi Red Deer were found.

Modern Alluvium. — This deposit of alluvial silt, containing layers of vegetable matter, mammalian remains, and land and freshwater shells, seems to be continuous from Rugby to Tewkesbury, increasing in thickness as we descend the river, from about 6 ft. to about 15 ft. In the neighbourhood of Rugby, near Little Lawford, a well-known discovery of mammalian remains and shells was made in the year 1815, of which a short account is given in Dr. Buckland's 'Reliquiae Diluvianae.' I believe that the Rev. Andrew Bloxam, then residing at Rugby, was the first person to call Dr. Buckland's attention to the discovery. In a letter to me, in reply to a query about the meaning of the term " drift," as applied by him to the deposit in which the remains were found, Mr. Bloxam says, " The drift in your plan, as far as I can remember, was alluvial loamy soil, at the bottom of which, just above the clay (Lias?), was a layer of a few inches thick of a black peaty kind of deposit, in which the bones were deposited, some of which, however, had sunk into the clay beneath." Dr. Buckland remarks, in his work, that the bones appeared not in the least degree mineralized, and had lost scarcely any thing of their animal matter and weight.

As a general rule, the mammalian remains have been found, according to all accounts, either resting immediately on the surface of the basement clay or else in the lowermost beds of the freshwater gravels. The land and freshwater shells have been pretty much confined to the lower beds in the few localities where they have hitherto been found ; with the exception of the case recorded by Sir R. Murchison, near Bricklehampton Bank, the bones &c. usually have occurred singly, and the shells were well preserved, with their valves often in contact. No stone implements, as yet authenticated, have, I believe, been found in the superficial deposits of the Avon valley.

List of Mammalia from the Freshwater Deposits of the Avon, com- piled from Mr. Dawkins's Table.

Canis lupus. Hyaena spelaea. Cervus tarandus. C. elaphus.

Bison priscus. Hippopotamus major. Sus scrofa. Equus caballus.

Rhinoceros tichorhinus. Elephas antiquus. E. primigenius.

Note. — Canis lupus is found in the Table under the locality " Tewkesbury."

VOL. XXVI.— PART I.