On the Occurrence of Elephas Meridionalis at Dewlish (Dorset). Second Communication: Human Agency suggested

Abstract

I n June 1888 I read a paper before the Society on the occurrence of Elephas meridionalis at Dewlish in Dorset. Subsequent excavations were made by the late Mr. J. C. Mansel-Pleydell, of which he gave accounts in two articles in the Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History & Antiquarian Field-Club, vol. x (1889) pp. 12 et seqq. & vol. xiv (1893) pp. 139–41, the second of these being illustrated by photographs of the deposit. Mr. Clement Reid also, in the latter part of 1888, spent four days in investigating the locality, and described it in the Geological Survey Memoir on the geology of the country around Dorchester, 1899. This memoir contains a drawing (p. 35) copied from one of Mr. Pleydell's photographs. The photographs themselves are now reproduced (Pls. III & IV). It is not necessary to describe the locality afresh, as that has been done already by Mr. Pleydell and by myself, and subsequently very clearly by Mr. Reid. The distant fence shown in Pl. III is on the brow of the hill, and the early finds were made just beyond it. The deposit was then opened on the opposite side of it, where the pelvic bone lies, the fence being left intact. The trench was afterwards followed for about 103 feet, until it suddenly terminated in a smooth ‘apse-like’ end. The photograph showing the pelvic bone (Pl. III) was taken from the farther end, looking about due north-west towards the brow of the hill. Both the views seem