NOTE ON THE SHELLS FROM THE BRICK-EARTH AT CHELMSFORD. 19
beds and redeposited, and their perfect condition raises the hope
that other equally good specimens will, in course of time, be
unearthed ; and now that the workmen are aware of their value,
greater care will be taken to preserve whatever may be found.
It is highly probable that mammalian bones from the brick-earth
of this neighbourhood are preserved in private collections, and, if
such be the case, it is hoped that some intimation of their existence
may be sent to the Secretary of the Essex Field Club, or to the
writer of these notes.
NOTE ON THE SHELLS FROM THE BRICK-
EARTH AT CHELMSFORD.
By WILFRED MARK WEBB, F.L.S., Memb. Malac. Soc.
[Read March 9th, 1895.]
SHORTLY after the meeting of the Essex Field Club on Novem-
ber 24th, 1894, at which the mandible of the mammoth was
exhibited, I visited the pit from which it was taken, in the hope of
discovering some molluscan remains. The face of the working had
been cleaned off provokingly with spades, and a brief search revealed
nothing in the way of shells. On the occasion, however, of the visit
of Mr. E. T. Newton and Mr. T. V. Holmes, it was found that a
large fall had just occurred, and Mr. William Cole who, with the
other explorers, went with me on to the heap of debris, through
which the surface-water freely trickled, was the first to discover a
white speck on the freshly exposed surface, which turned out to be
a shell of Succinea, and was soon followed by other examples.
The shells were almost completely confined to a band of greyer
material, generally some two or three inches wide, running horizon-
tally through the browner brick-earth at a distance of about five
feet below the present surface. One of the workmen, however,
pointed out next day that some nine feet of stuff had been pre-
viously taken off, and the marks on the abrupt slope leading to
the hedge at the base of the railway embankment and facing the
section, bear out the statement. This being so, the shell deposit
should be reckoned as existing thirteen or fourteen feet below
the original ground level.
As the fall, before alluded to, brought the brink of the pit