116 DISCOVERY OF MAMMALIAN REMAINS AT GREAT YELDHAM.
Wickham Bishop, and west of another from Sudbury across Tiptree
Heath, with portions of adjacent counties), Mr. Whitaker gives the
following account of the section seen by him at this brickyard. The
memoir was published in 1878, and as Mr. Whitaker's remarks are
very brief they are here given in full. (p. 68.)
' At the brickyard just west of Yeldham Station I saw the
following section with Mr. Bennett, who remarks that the bones had
been split open (? for the sake of their marrow), and that amongst
them was part of a deer's horn :—
Brick-earth and gravel up to 8 or 9 feet.
Lighter-coloured brick earth, with bones, 2 feet.
Black, sandy, peaty earth, with land and freshwater shells, said
to be 6 feet.—W.W."
We found that there had been some recent digging close to, but
south of, the ruined brick-kiln, which exposed a section consisting
of brick-earth and gravel lying somewhat irregularly on bands
of light-coloured clayey or sandy loam or brick-earth. We also
heard of the existence of strata resembling the "black, sandy, peaty
earth," etc., seen by Mr. Whitaker towards the bottom of the section,
but the pit was filled with water up to a level which prevented us
from seeing anything below 2 ft. to 2 ft. 6 in. of light-coloured brick-
earth. In this light-coloured brick-earth I noticed some small pebbles
of chalk. We were told that the bones we afterwards saw came from
this level.
But though we were less fortunate than Messrs. Whitaker and
Bennett as regards the section, we were decidedly more favoured as
regards the bones. For those recently found at this brickyard had
been carefully preserved by a gentleman living about half-a-mile
away, Mr. Wade of Spayne's Hall. Mr. Wade not only permitted us
to inspect his collection, but very kindly offered Mr. Newton any
specimens he might wish to obtain for the Museum of Practical
Geology, Jermyn Street, London. Among a large number of bones,
many of which were insufficiently preserved for identification, Mr.
Newton detected many portions of the antlers of the Red Deer, some
teeth of a Bear, bones of a Rhinoceros, and part of the tooth of an
Elephant. But as he has kindly sent me some notes on the bones,
I prefer to give his own words. He says :
" The Mammalian remains recently unearthed in the brick-pit
are for the most part in a very fragmentary condition, but this seems
to be due chiefly to the process of extraction, and not to the fragility