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MUSEUM NOTES, NO. V.
Essex the question will arise as to whether the details should not
be filled in, and also as to whether a list should not be made of
all the woods in Essex which can lay reasonable claim to an
undisturbed antiquity. The area of woodland diminishes from
year to year, and at the rate of diminution that has been going
on for the last two or three decades there will soon be left hardly
a fragment. Epping Forest alone seems to be in a position
of safety. An account of all species now existing in the
woods, and a list of the woods, would be a chronicle, and
one to be consulted by future generations. Those who in
the course of plant collecting have had to refer to old books
on the subject will best appreciate the value that would attach
to such a chronicle. Plants, like all other organisms, do
not remain in one stay. Notes have been made by old authors
on various species and their modes of occurrence, that do not
agree with the observations of to-day. These notes were
probably correct in the main, but they have no sort of scientific
sanction, and have, therefore, to be taken with reservations. A
chronicle made on the lines I have suggested, particularly if
illustrated with copious notes, would be a reliable standard for
future investigations.
MUSEUM NOTES, No. V.
IX.—PELVIS OF MAMMOTH (?) FROM BARKING.
ON November 5th, 1906, we were informed by telephone that
a large bone had been unearthed on the "Kennedy
Estate" on the outskirts of Barking. Arrangements were at
once made for securing the specimen, and the next day we
brought the bone (it was in fragments) to the Museum. The pit
was on the Barking Level, about 300 yards S.W. of Eastbury
House.
The bone proved to be the greater part of the right
innominate of the pelvis of a species of Elephas. It was lying in
an excavation at about 45 inches from the surface. A photo-
graph of the bone in situ was taken, reproduced at Plate II.
The section of the soil was roughly :—Surface soil, 15 inches;
somewhat clayey soil, like brickearth, 15 to 17 inches; very