THE NEW RAILWAY BETWEEN UPMINSTER AND ROMFORD. 7
southern England, and have ceased in Scotland long before they
came to an end in northern Russia.
The fossil remains found at Grays, Ilford, Erith, and Crayford,
include those of the Mammoth (Elephas primigenius), a creature
whose geological range has given rise to much discussion. Remains
of the mammoth have also been found in river deposits higher up
the stream in London. The most recent discovery has lately been
recorded by Dr. Hicks, in a paper read before the Geological Society
on May 25th, 1892. (Q. J. G. S., vol. xlviii., p. 453.)2 But as that
able geologist inclines to think that the beds overlying the mammoth
tusks in Endsleigh Street are of the Glacial Period, from their
resemblance to those which underlie the Boulder Clay of Finchley,
it becomes necessary to discuss the probable age of these beds in
order to ascertain the amount and nature of the evidence for this
conclusion For it seems to me that they are simply river deposits,
which, from their surface being only eighty feet or less above
Ordnance Datum, are in all probability decidedly later in date than
the river gravel of Hornchurch, which uncomfortably overlies the
Boulder Clay there.
The excavations which were, so fortunately for geologists,
brought under the notice of Dr. Hicks, were made in Endsleigh and
other streets on the southern side of Endsleigh Gardens, south of
Euston Square. The sections were much alike as regards their
general character. On an eroded surface of London Clay lay gravel,
resting on the gravel was sand, and, above the sand, clay which con-
tained the calcareous nodules called "race." The surface consisted
of "made ground." All the strata mentioned were very variable in
thickness. In addition to the beds just named a thin stratum of
dark clayey loam with seeds was met with below the gravel here and
there, where the surface of the London Clay was more concave than
usual, and in this clayey loam the remains of the Mammoth were
found, at a depth of twenty-two feet from the surface, and a height
of sixty feet above Ordnance Datum. In this clayey loam Mr.
Clement Reid recognised the seeds of plants usually seen in ponds
and marshy places, and which, in the present day, range from the
Arctic Circle to Southern Europe.
The contours of the surface in a town are frequently so obscured
by winding streets, and a lack of open spaces, that it becomes impos-
2 "On the Discovery of Mammoth and other remains in Endsleigh Street, and in sections
exposed in Endsleigh Gardens, Gordon Street, Gordon Square, and Tavistock Square, London."
By Henry Hicks, M.D., F.R.S.