John Wickham Flower

“ Two teeth of Elephas primigenius, as well as some bones of Bos Urus, have also been found in the Thetford gravel; and from Shrub Hill I have some fragments of the horns of deer, and teeth of some ruminant, probably deer also, as well as some teeth of a small species of horse, all much broken and rolled; with these exceptions I believe that no mammalian remains have hitherto been noticed in these beds, nor any other traces of man's presence than the flint and stone implements. ”

“ The bed of gravel here is usually not more than 10 feet in thickness, and often less, resting immediately upon the chalk; and, as at Broomhill, the implements are usually found at the bottom of it, and occasionally they lie upon the chalk. As regards its composition, however, no less than its position, this gravel differs greatly from that found at Brandon; the nodules of flint are not so large, there is very little of the broken chalk, and the mass of the overlying sand is much less. ”

“ Nor is the resemblance which these valleys bear to each other confined to the lower beds. In both, as we approach the coast, and at about the same distance from it, the drift-gravel is overlain by a thick bed of peat, which entombs the remains of ancient forests of similar character, and in either country is found to contain similar mammalian remains, associated with implements or weapons of like material and workmanship. ”

“ The implements are never found in the river-channels, except where it is clearly seen that they have been derived from the laterite cliffs. They occur at the height of 500, 1000, and even 1400 feet above the sea-level, and at this height are associated with enormously large boulder-gravels of quartzite capping the watersheds of the rivers. Like several French and English deposits, these beds rest upon the Cretaceous and Postcretaceous beds; like them they are entirely destitute of marine or freshwater fossils ”

“ In one place swaths of grass lying just as they were mown were found at the depth of 8 feet, and in other places, at depths varying from 10 to 20 feet, there have been found a smith's forge with his tools and horseshoes, tan-pits, a cart-wheel, and ancient causeways, and the skeletons of sea-fish, and boats or canoes. ”

“ Polished flint implements of the Neolithic period have been often found lying below the peat or low down in it, as well as bronze celts and spear- heads; the peat varies in thickness from 1 or 2 feet to 20. or even 30 feet, and in it are found querns of pudding-stone and Roman antiquities. In many places in the level of the fens other unmistakeable proofs have been met with of the comparatively recent origin of these beds. ”

“ West of these several localities is seen the great level of the Fens, extending through Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambridgeshire, and Huntingdonshire into Northamptonshire and Lincolnshire, while to the eastward, passing by Santon Downham and Thetford, the Little Ouse is traced back to its source at Lopham Ford; and closely adjoining to the source, and only separated from it by a bank of sand 5 or 6 feet high and 200 yards wide, is found the source of the Waveney, which after running north-east, passing by Hoxne (another locality for flint implements) , falls into the sea at Yarmouth [4] . ”

“ John Evans has shown me three well-shaped flint implements lately found near Southampton, one at the depth of five ↑ M. Buteaux, in his very elaborate and careful description of the Somme valley, says that in the diluvium of that valley certain rocks are found which come from the Tertiary beds of the departments of the Oise and Aisne. Mr. Prestwich considers that the quartzite pebbles at Brandon are derived from the Boulder-clay series; but I am not aware that there are any Boulder-clays in the course of the river from which such a mass of these pebbles could have been derived. ”