Above the gravel lies a bed which for some distance from the eastern end of the section consists of a reddish-yellow sand, nearly pure, but containing small angular flints, and here and there a pebble of chalk. Towards the middle it passes into a blue sandy clay, and near the bank of Kimmeridge Clay it becomes a stiff blue clay with chalky seams. Some signs of stratification were apparent in the more clayey portion, and at the west end there was some contortion of the chalky seams.

The uppermost bed is a sandy clay with angular flints, pebbles, and subangular fragments, similar in a great measure to those in the gravel, but in many cases not so easily referred to the Lower Greensand. This bed was clearly defined after rain, standing out in relief over the sand below, but I could not trace it beyond the middle of the section.

In the bottom gravel are Anodon, Unio litoralis (?), Cyclas, Pisidium (all abundant), and Ancylus fluviatilis. The bed over the gravel contains these, with Limnaa, Helix, and Planorbis. In these two lower beds the Mammalian remains occur. The uppermost bed appears to be altogether harren.

It will be seen that this section exhibits the usual characteristics of a silted-up river. The gravel lies on the inferior formation as it was eroded by the action of the stream, and in the gravel are Shells of the species which inhabited the river when it flowed at that level. Above lies the finer "inundation mud" which was deposited during freshets after the river had formed a lower channel, and in it are found stagnant-water and land Shells, together with those proper to running water.

The Railway cuts the old river-bank nearly at right angles; and the course of the stream was probably from south to north, corresponding in this respect with the present drainage of the country.

The mean level of the gravel exposed in the section is about 5 feet above the stream at (a), and 23 feet above the stream to the westward of the cutting, flowing from Rycote Pond.

The Mammalian remains were found in great abundance. They were very soft while still saturated with water, so that the greater part were unavoidably much broken in the work of excavation. Many of those saved afterwards disappeared, being either destroyed by rough handling, or carried away altogether. The bones examined, therefore, form but a small proportion of those found in the cutting. I have, however, been able to identify portions of 6 or 7 Elephants, 13 Horses, 1 Rhinoceros, 1 Ox, 5 Deer, and a Carnivore. That these are the least number of individuals represented may be seen by referring to the annexed list of some of the principal bones, &c., which have been identified.

List of Mammalian Remains from the Section near Thame.

In all the cases that fell under my observation the bones were detached, and not lying so as to form a part of a skeleton. Close against one side of a boulder a large quantity of Elephant-bones was found, giving one the impression that a carcase had been brought up by the stone while rolling down the river; but the bones were so much broken and scattered when I saw them, that I could not ascertain whether they all belonged to one skeleton or not.

In following up a tusk which I had traced for 5 feet 6 inches, a portion of the right side of an Elephant's pelvis was found; it consisted of the entire ilium, with the acetabulum and ischium, and was lying partly under the tusk. Under the ilium, and in contact with it, was a fine third upper molar, perfectly entire and unrolled; but there was no trace of the upper jaw or of the bones of the head. Close by was a tibia, somewhat worn at the ends; and in disinterring this, another complete half of an Elephant's pelvis was found. Like the first, it belonged to the right side. In opening out the ground for this, the radius of a large Ox was brought to light, and the point of an Elephant's tusk. Near it were the acetabulum and pubis of the left side of an Elephant's pelvis. These were all in the gravel, and in a space of 5 feet square.

No Flint Implements were found, though carefully looked for. The search, however, was very partial.

2. On a DEPOSIT at STROUD containing FLINT IMPLEMENTS, LAND and FRESHWATER SHELLS, &c. By EDWIN WITCHELL, Esq., F.G.S.

[Abstract.]

In the course of some excavations for the construction of a reservoir near the summit of the hill above the town of Stroud, made during the past summer, the author observed in the clay, at a depth of 2 feet from the surface, a deposit which, on examination, he found to be full of Land-shells, with a few freshwater Bivalves *. The deposit was a kind of tufa; it contained near its base numerous flat-stone fragments of the stony bands formed of the valves of Ostrea acuminata (a Shell which characterizes the upper portion of the Fuller's Earth), some of them being of considerable size; and the surface of the whole showed traces of erosive action. This deposit was traced up the slope of the hill to the extent of 126 feet, and along the hillside about 60 feet; in the latter direction its extent was not disclosed by the works, but traces of it were found in a pit at a distance of 120 yards.

As the excavation proceeded, the author discovered in the deposit several flint flakes of the usual primitive type, flint nuclei, part of a flint arrow-head, fragments of an antler, a tusk, probably of a boar, with numerous small pieces of charcoal and small stones which had been subjected to the action of fire. Flint flakes, two flint arrowheads, bones, &c., have been found by other persons visiting the spot. In the overlying earth, which varied from 2 to 4 feet in thickness, a few pieces of pottery were found.

The position of the bed is singular, the ground falling away considerably towards the Slade Valley on the one side and towards Horn's Valley on the other, forming an elevated spur, somewhat rounded on its summit, with a deep valley on either side. The position of the shelly bed is at the end of the spur, where it joins the general elevated land of the district. Its elevation above the sea-level is about 650 feet, and that of the summit of the hill about 750 feet.

The formation on which the bed is deposited is clay derived from the Fuller's Earth, into which it passes downwards, and above, on the hill, is the western edge of the Stonesfield Slate. In the Fuller's Earth, about 50 yards higher up the hill than the shelly bed, is a line of small springs extending along the hill-side to a considerable distance. These springs issue from beneath a steep slope, forming

* These Shells have been collected and named by Mr. J. Jones, of Gloucester, who has written a paper upon the Deposit, claiming for it a period of great antiquity. They are as follows:

the upper escarpment of the hill; and below the shelly beds, some 80 yards, is a second escarpment formed by the ragstone-beds of the Inferior Oolite.

a. Surface-earth, 2 to 4 feet.

b. Shelly bed, 126 feet long.

c. Clay.

D. Stonesfield Slate.
E. Fuller's Earth.

F. Clypeus-beds of the
Inferior Oolite.

* Line of Springs.
Limits of Excava-
tion.

a

Inferior Oolite,

Top of

Stroud Hill.

D

E

F

The Slade.

The formation of the clay (c) was not the result of any great amount of disintegrating action, or it would be found to contain traces of the constituent parts of the beds forming the higher ground, which is not the case. The shelly bed is in immediate contact with the clay, there being no trace of any intermediate deposit, except the flat stones before referred to. These stones may have been carried down the slope from the higher beds by means of land-slips, and the finer and lighter particles having been washed away, the stones would be left scattered upon the surface, afterwards to become mixed with the shelly deposit as it accumulated.

To the same agency also (that of water and landslips) the shelly bed itself may perhaps owe its origin. Indeed it is difficult to account for its existence otherwise than upon the assumption that it took place in still water. It is in some places a mere sediment compressed by the overlying earth, and the slope on which it rests being at an incline of 13°, the smallest running stream would inevitably have carried it further down the hill, where the surface is comparatively level, and not have deposited it where the angle of inclination is greatest, but for the interposition of some considerable barrier similar to that which a landslip would produce.

The steep slope above the line of springs, already referred to as the upper escarpment, doubtless owes its present shape to landslips occasioned by the springs issuing from beneath; and if we suppose that at some distant period a slip of considerable magnitude took place from this slope, the material of which, after passing downwards to the more level surface above the lower escarpment, there for a time became stationary, we have a dam formed, and, as the springs followed the same course, a pond would be the result;

the Land-shells and sediment would be brought into it by means of the springs and land-floods, and the shelly bed is accounted for.

The formation of a pond as the consequence of a landslip is stated by the author to be not inconsistent with the known results of the action of springs issuing from the beds of the Fuller's Earth. Thus at Brimscombe, three miles distant, these springs have at some former period caused an extensive slip of Fuller's Earth, which is now found covering the bottom of the valley in a stratum of considerable thickness, its original position being at an elevation of at least 400 feet above the valley; and at Chalford, in the same locality, there is, at this time, and from the same cause, another mass of Fuller's Earth, covering a surface of about two acres, on its way downwards into the valley.

If it be conceded that a pond or small lake once existed upon the site of the shelly bed, it follows of course, from the contents of the deposit, that it was a place to which the inhabitants of the district resorted for various purposes, the animal-charcoal, which is found throughout the bed, even to its lowest part, proving that during the whole period of its formation the surrounding country was inhabited. The changes which have taken place in the aspect of the slopes and the covering up of the deposit with vegetable mould, from 2-4 feet thick, must have been the work of a very long period, and there can be little doubt that the people by whom the Flint Implements were formed, and who left behind them other traces of their existence, were some of the earliest inhabitants of this country. In further proof of this opinion is the fact that Helix lamellata (one of the shells mentioned in the list) is not now an inhabitant of this part of the country, not being found south of Scarborough*.

3. On the WHITE LIMESTONE of JAMAICA, and its associated intrusive ROCKS. By A. LENNOX, Esq., F.G.S., late of the Geological Survey of Jamaica.

[Abstract.]

In this paper the author described the White Limestone of Jamaica and its associated eruptive rocks.

4. FACTS and OBSERVATIONS connected with the EARTHQUAKE which occurred in ENGLAND on the morning of the 6TH OF OCTOBER, 1863. By Fort-Major THOMAS AUSTIN, F.G.S.

[Abstract.]

EARTHQUAKES in the British Isles, though not quite such rare events as is generally supposed, usually attract but little notice, but that

*On the authority of Mr. Jones before named.