FOUND IN THE NEIGHBOURHOOD OF CHELMSFORD. 17
So far as I am aware, the only species hitherto known to occur
near Chelmsford, are those mentioned by Prof. W. Boyd Dawkins1
from Moulsham, near Chelmsford, namely Hippopotamus
major, Bos primigenius, and possibly Bison. Mr. H. W. Bristow
and Mr. H. B. Woodward, as recorded by Mr. W. Whitaker,2
when noticing the occurrence of Hippopotamus at Moulsham,
probably allude to the specimens referred to by Prof. Boyd
Dawkins. The authorities for these specimens are said to be those
of the British Museum and the Museum of the Geological Survey.
Mr. R. Lydekker's "Catalogue of the Fossil Mammals in the
British Museum" (part 2, p. 280) includes eight specimens of bones
of Hippopotamus from Moulsham, Chelmsford ; but it seems quite
possible that these may all have belonged to one animal. In the
same catalogue (p. 13) is also noticed, from the same locality, a
metatarsal of Bos taurus var. primigenius. No remains of Bison are
recorded in these catalogues from near Chelmsford, and a diligent
search through the remains of Pleistocene Mammals in the Museum
of the Geological Survey has failed to bring to light any specimens
from that locality. I am unable, therefore, to verify Prof.
Dawkins' record of Bison from Chelmsford, and it must still remain
as he left it, in doubt. On the other hand the occurrence of Bos
and Hippopotamus is further established by specimens in the Essex
Field Club Museum, said to have been obtained near Chelmsford.
One of these is a fine femur of Hippopotamus in a good state
of preservation and nearly perfect ; besides this there are two
examples of the frontlets and horn cores of a large Bos which I
should refer to the primigenius variety of Bos taurus. In addition
to these there are in the same Museum two elephant's molar teeth
from the Pleistocene, but they are less certainly from this district.
One of these is referable to Elephas primigenius and the other to
E. antiquus.
Fortunately the evidence for the occurrence of Elephas in the
Chelmsford Pleistocene deposits does not rest upon these two
specimens, for quite recently a fine lower jaw of Elephas primigenius
has been discovered in the brick-pit at Chelmsford, in the bed of
ferruginous gravel overlying the blue clay, described by Mr. T. V.
Holmes, and has been secured for the Essex Field Club Museum.
Both rami of this lower jaw are preserved, but the articular portions
1 Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc, vol. xxv., p. 198, 1869.
2 Geology of London, 1889, p. 452.