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Section No. 1 at South-East corner of Eastern Reservoir :—

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This gravel (No. 5), which forms the floor of the Reservoir, is of very considerable thickness. At one spot, where pumping for "puddling" had been going on, a hole, more than 10 feet in depth from the surface of the gravel-bed, still showed the same gravel with abundance of water.

Section No. 2 at South-west corner of Western Reservoir :

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7. Clean red gravel (corresponding with Bed 5 of Section No. 1,
and forming the floor of the Reservoir).

Section No. 3 in the Eastern Reservoir, and near the Embankment between Eastern and Western Reservoirs :

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5. White-coated sub-angular Gravel...

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6. Clean red Gravel forming floor of Reservoir, equivalent to bed

5 of section No. 1 (depth not ascertained).

The beds above the shell-marl (and, in some parts of the area, those also below it), contain abundant remains of forest vegetation. Large areas of the upper loamy and peaty beds, where exposed in the course of the works by the removal of the more superficial layers, exhibiting the ancient remains of trees with their spreading roots still in situ, but in most instances converted into lignite and coated with bog-iron-ore. Hazel nuts are abundant, and we were able to detect evidence of the Oak and the Alder, but there are no doubt several other trees which may be determined by their wood upon further examination under the microscope.

The peat, especially near the centre of the works (section No. 3), attains a thickness of more than three feet, and is exceedingly stiff and compact when first cut through, but from exposure it rapidly dries and cracks vertically into irregular prismatic masses, which may be readily detached.

The Shell-bed, on the Eastern and Northern sides of the area exposed, exhibited many cases of oblique lamination, indicative of currents and a winding rivercourse. Most of the bivalve shells have their valves united, and the Uniones reposing in their natural position as in life, whilst the operculum remains in the aperture of many of the Paludinida.

An examination of a small quantity of the materials composing the the Shell-marl, yielded the following species of Land and Freshwater shells.

Helix hortensis, Müller.
nemoralis, Linn.

arbustorum, Linn.

ericetorum, Müll.
caperata, Montf.
hispida, Linn.

Succinea putris, Linn.
Zua lubrica, Müll.

Clausilia bidens, Müll.

Limnea stagnalis, Linn.

peregra, Müll., sp.

auricularia, Linn., sp.

palustris, Linn., sp.

Limnea truncatula, Müll., sp.
Planorbis corneus, Linn., sp.
carinatus, Müll., sp.
vortex, Linn., sp.

Ancylus fluviatilis, Müll., sp.
Valvata piscinalis, Müll.
Bithinia tentaculata, Linn.
ventricosa, Gray.

Neritina fluviatilis, Linn.
Unio tumidus, Retz.

pictorum, Linn.

Pisidium amnicum, Müll.

Cyclas cornea, Linn.

From the Peat and Shell-marl, the following Mammalia, etc., have

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From the lower beds reached in excavating for the "puddle-wall:"

Elephas primigenius, Blum.

Bos primigenius, Bojanus.
Cervus strongyloceros, Owen.

Portions of tusk and molar tooth.
Head and horn-cores.

Base of a gigantic antler.

Mr. A. W. Franks, F.S.A., Keeper of the Ethnographical Department, and of the "Christy Museum," kindly informs me that he has examined and identified the following works of human industry,

Of the relative depth at which these various works of human industry were actually obtained, only a rough estimate can be formed, as they have, in almost every case, been obtained by Mr. Joseph Wood (the well-known collector of Bradford Clay Fossils) from the Navvies employed in the excavation. The writer was so fortunate as to obtain on the East side of the Eastern Reservoir a Flint Scraper, which he extracted with his own bands in undisturbed matrix from the bed of dark loamy clay, three feet below the surface.

2 Having the antlers and ends of the tynes in many instances cut previous to their having been imbedded.

3 See description of remains by Professor Owen, p. 389.

obtained from Walthamstow, most of which are now in his possession, viz., two bronze spear-heads, one bronze arrow-head, one bronze knife, one iron sword (late Celtic), part of the bronze sheath of a "late Celtic" dagger, part of a Kimmeridge coal armlet, a pierced axe-head of stag's-horn, a bone knife, a stag's-horn club, various "late Celtic" earthen pots, some hand-made, and some probably turned on a wheel, etc., etc.

In tracing back the history of this locality, it is exceedingly difficult to ascertain any very exact data. But this much is certain, that so late as A.D. 1700, the entire tract between the Rivers Roding and Lea was forest-land, the greater part covered with timber.

In the Notes to Bowen's Map of Essex (1743), it is stated "Epping forest was formerly of very large extent, but its limits were settled and restrained by Act of Parliament (17 Car. I.), according to which regulation, it is now about 14 miles long and 10 broad. Tis full of game, and well stocked with deer, said to be the largest and fattest in the kingdom."

According to the records of the time of Henry III. (1228), and Edward I. (1298 and 1300), the whole County of Essex was at that

time one entire Forest.

There is little doubt that Henhault, Epping, Walthamstow, Tottenham, Enfield, and Edmonton, were, at no very remote period, one continuous tract of Forest land. In the reign of Henry II. (1154), the Forest of Middlesex extended from Houndsditch, to about 12 miles north of London, and belonged to the Corporation of the City. The Forest is described as abounding in wolves, wild boars, stags, and wild bulls. So late as the time of Henry VI. (1485), wolves were met with there.

This tract was not disafforested until 1777 (17 Geo. III., c. 17).

Chapman and Andre's Map of Essex (1777) is the earliest accurate map of this county, and shows at least a portion of the tract under consideration, still covered with Forest trees, and styled Walthamstow Forest. Indeed, so late as the first Ordnance Survey Map (published in 1805), the "Lower Forest," extended close to Maryland Point, Stratford.

In referring to these records of the former continuity and extent of Epping and Walthamstow Forests, I do so, not to explain away the undoubted antiquity of these buried remains, but rather to show that their quiet repose for so long a period at so comparatively trifling a distance beneath the surface soil, is in all probability due to the fact that the spot where they occur has not been disafforested 100 years, and has never been disturbed by agriculture, but used simply as pasturage.

Note. From the broad tract of the Lea Valley occupied by the Freshwater Shell-bed, and also from the abundance of Drift-wood, together with remains of the Beaver, it is quite possible that we may have here preserved to us the evidences of an old forest-tract flooded by Beaver dams, a condition of things which is sure to arise wherever the Beaver makes his habitation.- See "The American Beaver and his Works," by Lewis H. Morgan, Philadelphia, 1868.

II.-NOTE ON THE OCCURRENCE OF REMAINS OF THE ELK (ALCES PALMATUS) IN BRITISH POST-TERTIARY DEPOSITS.

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By Professor OWEN, F.R.S.

T the date of publication of my "British Fossil Mammals" (1846) I had not obtained satisfactory evidence of the Elk as one of them. But shortly after that period the Tyne-side Naturalists recorded in their instructive Transactions' the discovery of a fine antler of an Elk ('Alces palmatus fossilis' of the 'Club') in a Peatbog, near the North Tyne River, Northumberland. I am now able to add to that notice evidence of the extension of the localities of true Elk-remains as far south as Walthamstow, Essex. The excavations of the East London Waterworks, now in progress, have exposed sections of an old bed of the River Lea, near Walthamstow. In this bed, at from five to eight feet in depth, have been obtained remains of Bos longifrons, Capra hircus, with remarkably fine horncores, part of an antler, two feet eight inches long, of a Reindeer (C. tarandus), and in another kind of deposit, as evidenced by the darker colour of the bones, and a thin partial coating of limy matter, were obtained the humerus, antibrachium, and metacarpus of an Elk, closely corresponding with those of the existing Scandinavian species (Cervus Alces, Linn.; Alces palmatus; Auct., and Alces Europaeus, Hamilton Smith).1

ence.

The length of the humerus is 1 foot 3 inches: the least circumference of the shaft, 4 inches 10 lines; the length of the antibrachium is 1 foot 7 inches; its least circumference, 5 inches 3 lines. The ulna is anchylosed to the radius along great part of its distal half. The metacarpus is 1 foot 9 lines in length, and 4 inches in circumferThe characters of these bones in the peculiarly long-legged kind of deer called 'Elk' or 'Moose' differentiate them readily and strongly from those of the Bovines, of the Megaceros, and of the Wapiti or other large round-antlered deer. They are, perhaps, more satisfactory evidences of Alces than portions of antler. Professor Gervais, e.g., writes doubtfully, on such grounds, in regard to Cervus alces' as a French fossil:-"Cette espèce-paraît avoir laissé des débris fossiles en France dans les terrains diluviens. M. de Christol y a rapporté quelques portions de bois extraites des sables diluviens des Riège, près Pézenas, que nous attribuerons à notre Cervus martialis." (Paléontologie Française, 4to. p. 80).

We owe to Julius Cæsar the valuable record of the existence of both the Reindeer (Bos-cervus) and the Elk (Alces) in the Black Forest and conterminous part of Germany at the period of his campaign in that country and in Gaul. (De Bello Gallico, Lib. vi. cap. xxvi. p. 320. Ed. Ludg. Bat. 1737).

1 I have not been able to discern any distinctive character of specific value between the N. American and Scandinavian Elks.

III. ON THE ORGANIC REMAINS FOUND IN CLAY NEAR CROFTHEAD. RENFREWSHIRE.

THE

By JAMES A. MAHONY, Esq.

HE number of the GEOLOGICAL MAGAZINE, for September last. contained a description, by Mr. James Geikie, of stratified beds of sand and mud intercalated with Boulder-clay, which occur in the Cowdon valley, near Crofthead. His reference to some contained vegetable débris induced me to make an examination of the strata, which has resulted in revealing an abundance of organic remains quite exceptional in such deposits.

In the stratified beds, which are cut into to the depth of thirteen feet, there are some layers of vegetable matter. Two are specially well marked; the lower, two inches in thickness, containing numerous stems of mosses, and the upper (lying seven feet higher in the section) ten to twelve inches thick, being that in which the skull of Bos primigenius was found. These layers differed somewhat in the species of the organic remains, as well as in their comparative abundance, though both were rich in the relics of what must have been a varied fauna and flora. The lower two-inch bed was remarkable for the numerous stems of Hypnum tamariscinum which occurred through its entire mass, and the fragments of a soft-shelled Entomostracan-probably a Daphnia, which must have existed in myriads during the deposition of this bed. It also contained many plant-seeds; fragments of wood, birch and hazel being most frequent; three species of mosses; and eggs of an insect-one of the Ephemerida. From the upper leaf-bed I obtained some species of Desmids— these microphytes being quite absent in the lower bed; eleven mosses; nine Phanerogams; and in the animal kingdom, representatives of Protozoa, Annelida, Crustacea, and Insecta. The bed was not equally rich in organisms through its whole extent. On separating the layers at some places, only a fragment of a reed-like plant would be visible, while other parts were crowded with mosses and leaves of the Pond-weed. Where the plants existed in greatest plenty, there the animal remains were also most abundant. The larger objects were removed from the surfaces exposed on separating the various laminæ, the remaining portion being afterwards macerated in water, when many seeds were found floating on the surface. The residue was then passed through sieves of different sizes—thus yielding an assorted series of remains which were mounted for identification.

On examining a portion of this leaf-bed under the microscope, I was gratified and surprised at finding the whole field of view crowded with frustules of Diatoms, many of them broken and all free from endochrome. They abounded in the twelve inch leaf-bed, forming, as nearly as I could determine, one fourth of the entire mass. order to procure them free from extraneous matter, I steeped 2 oz. of the clay in water for a few minutes, then, with frequent stirring,

1 GEOL. MAG., Vol. V., p. 393.

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