On the Age of the Lower Brick-earths of the Thames Valley

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Abstract
§ 1. Introduction .—While engaged in accumulating materials for the definition of the range in space and time of the British Pleistocene Mammalia, I was forcibly struck by the peculiar character of those found in the Brick-earths and gravels of the lower part of the Thames Valley, as compared with those from low-level deposits in other parts of Britain which seem stratigraphically to be of the same date, and which occupy the same horizon above the sea. I propose, therefore, to bring before the Society an analysis of my notes relating to the remains found on the north side of the Thames, at Ilford and Grays Thurrock in Essex, and on the south side at Crayford, Erith, and Wickham in Kent, together with some notices of the strata in which they occur. § 2. Literature .—The first to call attention to these deposits was Professor Morris, who published a valuable paper on Grays Thurrock, in 1836*, and extended his investigations in 1838† to the other localities under consideration. After a careful analysis of the evidence afforded by the mollusca, he inferred that “their connexion with the ancient beds of gravel was a subject requiring further elucidation,” and abstained from drawing any conclusions about their exact age. Dr. Falconer, in 1857‡, in his masterly treatise on the Mastodon and Elephant, recognized “the true Pliocene assemblage of species” at Grays Thurrock and the lower beds at Brentford, and thence inferred that they were of an earlier age than any part of the Till or

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