A Day's Elephant Hunting in Essex. 57
of some of the tusks, the general evidence shows that the
Ilford elephants were rather a small race.
The British rhinoceroses of the Thames Valley are repre-
sented by eighty-six remains, belonging to three species,
each of which is distinguished by the character or absence
of the bony nasal septum—viz., Rhinoceros megarhinus,
Rhinoceros leptorhinus, and Rhinoceros tichorhinus. The
last-named is characterised by a woolly fleece, like its com-
panion the mammoth. The British lion, which recent
geology shows to have been no myth, is represented by the
lower jaw and a phalanx of the left forefoot. On the Kent
side of the river, at Erith and Crayford, some fine canine
teeth of the lion have been found ; but these are at present
in a private collection at Belvedere. In addition, the
Brady collection also includes the hippopotamus, which is
found at Grays Thurrock, as well as at Ilford. The rumi-
nants, such as the stag, bison, and ox, constitute fully
one-half of the collection, numbering more than 500
specimens. There are 7 specimens of the great Irish deer
(Megaceros hibernicus) and 50 of the red deer. The task of
excavating and preserving the Ilford specimens forms a
history of itself, and is honourably associated with the name
of Mr. William Davies, of the British Museum. The
majority of the bones, on being uncovered, were in a most
perishable condition, having had all the gelatine dissolved
or washed out, which left them in the state of minutely
honeycombed mineral skeletons. Hundreds of fragments
of a single bone have been restored to their original position
by Mr. Davies, and gelatine infused afresh, so that the
Brady collection is a marvel of art as well as of nature.
These are some of the conspicuous trophies of elephant-
hunting in the Valley of the Thames that Sir Antonio
Brady possesses. They have all been obtained from the
pits at Ilford. It is fortunate for those who have but little
opportunity of hunting elephants for themselves that these
astonishing specimens have fallen into skilful, wise, and
generous keeping. Their custodian is one who has made
them the means of spreading more widely a knowledge of
the extinct zoology of the old Thames Valley. The museum