The Fossil Elephants of the Upper Thames Basin

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Abstract
Succession of Deposits : Recent Developments. In a paper published recently in the Journal of this Society (Q. J. G. S. vol. lxxx, 1924. p. 113) I described the river-gravels of the Thames and of its tributaries about Oxford, and, on a considerable body of evidence, suggested the following sequence of events:— Glacial Plateau Drift; about 140 feet above the present river-level. [‘Glacial’, because, among other things, it contains glacially-striated erratic boulders and pebbles.] Handborough Terrace; base about 90 to 100 feet above river-level, containing a well-marked ‘ Elephas antiquus fauna ’. Wolvercote Terrace; about 40 feet above river-level, with derived Chellean implements, no fauna known; placed later than the above on stratigraphical evidence. Wolvercote Channel; about 40 feet above river-level, a ‘ravinement’ of the Wolvercote Terrace, containing at the bottom unrolled Upper Acheulean and Micoque implements, Elephas antiquus and associated animals, capped by sands with mollusca indicative of temperate climate, and at a higher level peat, with plants, mosses, and coleoptera of temperate to sub-arctic character; above are clays containing rare implements, which are suggestive of Mousterian workmanship. At the top the Warp Sands are driven into the underlying deposits, as if by considerable force from above (suggestive of a cold and wet climate). Summertown-Radley Terrace; about 20 feet above river-level, separated from the Wolvercote Terrace by a step; lower gravels abundant in remains of E. primigenius and accompanying fauna (less the Reindeer), overlain unconformably by gravels in which occur Hippopotamus, sometimes abundant, Corbicula fluminalis —occasionally very abundant, with valves united and

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