Page:VCH Kent 1.djvu/78

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A HISTORY OF KENT The hoofed mammals include the red deer, the reindeer, the roe, the wild boar, the horse, the woolly rhinoceros {Rhhioceros antiquitatis), and the mammoth [Elephas primigemiis) . Mr. Newton also records a number of species of birds and a few of reptiles and amphibians from the Ightham fissure ; but since all these appear to belong to living British species, and the determinations are in some instances more or less provisional, it will be unnecessary to mention them by name on the present occasion. The list of mammals from Kentish Pleistocene deposits other than the Ightham fissure includes the following species. Of the cave-lion {Felis leo spelad) the British Museum possesses a fine skull collected by Mr. Spurrell and two fragments of the lower jaw from Crayford and a couple of imperfect bones from Slade Green near Erith ; and remains of the species have also been obtained from Sittingbourne. The cave-hyaena [Hycena crocuta spelcea), a variety of the living spotted African species, has been recorded from Erith, the wolf {Cam's lupus) from Slade Green, and the fox (C vulpes) from Dartford. Of the other Carnivora, the brown bear {Ursus arctus) has left its remains at Crayford, and the badger [Meles meles) at Grovehurst in Milton-next- Sittingbourne. The rodents from the same deposits comprise the field- vole {Microtus agrestis) at Crayford, and the water-vole {M. amphibius) at Crayford and Erith, as well as the sushk mentioned above under the heading of the Ightham fauna, which has been recorded from Erith. Among the hoofed mammals, remains of the aurochs,^ or extinct wild ox (Eos taurus primigenius), occur at Broadmead near Folkestone, Heme Bay, Maidstone and Slade Green ; and those of the Pleistocene bison [B. bonasus) at East Wickham, Crayford, Folkestone and Wool- wich. Very noteworthy is the occurrence of the musk-ox [Ovibos moschatus) in the Crayford deposits,^ and also at Plumstead, since remains of that ruminant are very scarce in Britain. Bones and antlers of the red deer — probably the Caspian race [Cervus elaphus marat) — have been discovered at Crayford, Folkestone, Maidstone and Slade Green ; those of the giant fallow deer — the so-called Irish elk — (C. giganteus) at Folkestone ; and those of the reindeer {Rangifer tarandus) at Boughton, Folkestone, Otterham in Upchurch and Sitting- bourne. The Pleistocene hippopotamus [Hippopotamus amphibius major) has been recorded from Folkestone, and the wild boar {Sus scrofa) from Maidstone. Special interest attaches to a fragment of the skull and three upper molar teeth of the woolly rhinoceros {Rhinoceros antiquitatis) from Chartham near Canterbury, which are preserved in the British Museum. These specimens were obtained in 1668 by a Mr. J. Somner, and are described as the remains of a sea monster in a rare pamphlet, published the following year in London, and entitled News from Chartham in Kent, etc. Of this pamphlet (which is reprinted in the Philosophical T'ransac- 1 This name is frequently misapplied to the bison. 2 See W. Davies, Geo/o^cal Magazine, 1880, p. 246. 32