Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Antiquarian Field Club (Volume 14) (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1893. Excerpt: ... writing my note on the Dewlish Elephant Bed, I have traced it to its termination, a distance of 103 feet, and instead of its having been deposited when the river flowed at a higher level than it does at present, which I thought at one time to be the case, I find it was carried into a fissure by a river or flood, before the formation of the Dewlish Valley, when the features of the district were different to what they are now. A fault which is apparent about three miles to the north, in the axis of the valley, has elevated its eastern side 84 feet at an angle of about 74, giving the strata a north and east dip. This fault has not affected the strata on its western side, the inclination of which is conformable to those of the district, extending to the Tertiaries, which appear farther west in the neighbourhood of Puddletown. The stream did not flow with uniform strength; at times it was gentle enough to transport only the lightest materials; at others it was capable of carrying down heavy objects. This seems to have been the case shortly before the fissure was filled up, as the large flints and elephantremains lay at the top of the deposit and so near the surface that every bone, with the exception of the massive limbs, pelvicbones, tusks, and molars, was dissolved; every attempt failed to raise them from the matrix, and in spite of applications of thin liquid glue and coatings of plaster of Paris they crumbled into dust. The remarkable polished flints, interspersed in the upper part of the deposit, had been probably lying on the surface of a sandy plain, and their exposed parts subjected to the ceaseless friction of wind-blown sand. During the greater part of the Pliocene age the climate of Europe was warmer than it is now; many plants and animals disappear...