Page:Transactions of the Geological Society, 1st series, vol. 1.djvu/352

 unaltered state, and this indeed seems to be the fact from its resinous fracture; but it must be observed, on the other hand, that pieces of it occur which are penetrated by iron pyrites.

This stratum is also rendered exceedingly interesting by its surface appearing to have been the residence of land animals, not a single vestige of which seems to have been found in any of the numerous subjacent strata of the British series. Mr. Jacobs relates that the remains of an elephant were found at Shepey. The remains of the elephant, stag, and hippopotamus have also been dug tip at Kew. At Walton in Essex, not only the remains of the elephant, stag, and hippopotamus have been discovered, but also remains of the rhinoceros, and of the Irish fossil elk. Org. Rem. vol, iii. p. 366.

It has been generally, supposed that these remains were contained within the stratum of blue clay; but the circumstances, under which they are found, seem rather to warrant the conclusion, that they were deposited on the surface of those low spots where abruptions of the superior part of this stratum had taken place. Thus the remains of the elephant mentioned by Mr. Jacobs were not in the cliff, but in a low situation at a distance from it; so also the remains of land animals in Essex occur a little below the surface, in a line with the marshes, which are a very few feet above high water mark. By a communication of the late Mr. William Trimmer of Kew, it appeared that he found, under the sandy gravel, a bed of earth, highly calcareous, from one foot to nine feet in thickness; beneath this a bed of gravel a few feet thick, containing water, and then the main stratum of blue clay. At the bottom of the sandy gravel, he observed that the bones of the hippopotamus, deer, and elephant were met with; but not in those parts of the field to which the calcareous bed did not extend. Here also a considerable number of small and apparently fresh-water shells, and, at the bottom, snail-shells were found.