File:The Quarterly journal of the Geological Society of London (12711588295).jpg

1855,. HULL ON THE COTTESWOLDS. 491
About eight years ago, during the formation of the Oxford, Wor-
cester, and Wolverhampton Railway, a cutting was made through
gravel, referable to estuarine origin, near the village of Ascott. The
cutting is now covered by grass, but the following section (fig. 10)
is exposed in a gravel-pit at its extreme end.
Fig. 10. — Section of the Estuarine Beds at Ascott, Oxfordshire.
-l- '--V^, -■ -, '-:•_ \ '■ '■, '; ' ; ■ v,-':'/^ r Estuarine Beds
a. Warp-Drift ; soil passing downwards into brown sandy loam, with a few
pebbles, and varying from 6 inches to 7 feet.
B. Fine yellow and brown sand.
C. Fine gravel, composed principally of fragments of local rocks, but occasionally
of those of more distant origin, as slate, flint, and grits.
d. Lower Lias Shale, with a bed of blue limestone charged with fossils, about
1 foot thick.
At 9 feet from the surface in the cutting, the skeleton of a large
mammal was found. It was described to me as being about 18 feet
in length without the head, which was not obtained. From the
description I received of the tusks, which were curved and measured
9 feet from the tip to the base ; and, from an inspection of two of
the teeth, I concluded the skeleton to have been that of the Elephas
'primigenius. The navvies were continually digging up portions of
the skeleton for five weeks before they were aware what they had
found *.
In the Lias Clay beneath were the vertebrae of Ichthyosaurus,
and in the superficial gravel, above the skeleton of the Elephant,
human remains, probably of very ancient date, were discovered ; and
thus, in a series of deposits of only 20 feet in aggregate thickness,
relics characteristic of three great epochs in the earth's history were
entombed in the order of their relative ages.
My endeavours to obtain shells from these gravels have been in-
effectual ; but it is probable they are the equivalents of the estuarine
and mammaliferous deposits of the Vale of Gloucester and the
Thames Valley, and with those lately described by Mr. Trimmer
as occurring in the neighbourhood of Peterborough. According to
this supposition they are to be included in the second stationary, or

• The greater portion of the skeleton is supposed to be in the possession of
  

J. Taunton, Esq., formerly Engineer of the line. Two teeth were shown to me
by Mr. Lardner of Ascott, to whom, as also to the Rev. F, E. Lott, I am indebted
for information on the subject.