Thomas Belt

“ In the south of England the remains of the mammoth are abundant in the valley-gravels. They are found mixed through them, or more commonly at their base. Palæolithic implements are found in the same position, though usually in gravel higher up on the slopes of the valleys. When found in the gravel, the bones are broken and worn, and the flint implements have their angles rounded more or less as if by rolling. ”

“ Godwin Austen [3] long ago recorded their conviction that they belonged to an earlier period than the deposition of the bowlder-clay, and that when they occur in newer beds they have been derived from an older formation. The remains are so plentiful in the caves of the north of England that it is certain that the mammoth and rhinoceros were abundant. Yet nowhere in the glaciated parts of the country have the bones been found excepting where preserved from the action of the ice in caverns and fissures. ”

“ That other interpretation I have indicated in the general section (Fig. 5) , in which all the facts observed are incorporated. I consider that the dark clay with vegetable remains and bones of the large extinct mammals is preglacial, in the sense that it is older than any of the glacial beds of the district. The gravel below the "redbrick earth," in which Mr. Frere found the flint implements, is probably of the same age, or that of the overlying gravel (5 in Figs. 4 and 5) . ”

“ It is not creditable that this uncertainty should remain when it can easily be cleared up. A few shafts or bore-holes put down would soon determine whether or not glacial beds underlie the dark clays of the brick-pit, or sands and gravel underlie the bowlder-clay on the other side of the brook. Excavations should also be made around the spot where Mr. Frere made his discoveries, to ascertain the exact position in which the flint implements were found so abundantly. ”

“ The implements of the one and the bones of the others are found together in the same stratum of the cave-earth, and in all the numerous caverns that have been searched in England and Wales there is no record of palæolithic implements being found at a higher horizon; when flint weapons do so occur they are invariably of the neolithic type. If geological evidence of contemporaneity is of any value, the occupation of the caves by palæolithic man ceased at the same time as the great mammals disappeared. ”

“ We do know the age of the Hoxne deposits: they may, as held by Prof. Prestwich, be postglacial; or they may, as held by Messrs. Croll and Geikie, be interglacial; or, lastly, they may, as I hold, be preglacial. ”

“ That the implements, and also fragments of bones and wood, should be occasionally found in the overlying deposits, is what might be expected, as they were in great measure formed by the denudation of the older ones. The "red-brick earth" (4 in section) is, I believe, a true glacial clay, belonging to the latter part of the first European lake. It is a noticeable fact that, all over Northern Europe, the glacial clays burn to a red color—a point not without significance with regard to the red beds of Permian
Fig. ”

“ Probably the expenditure of two hundred pounds would be amply sufficient, and I submit that it is a work that should be undertaken by the Royal Society or the British Association, who make grants for scientific inquiry.—Quarterly Journal of Science. ”

“ Frere noticed that the strata lay horizontally, and had been denuded to form the present valley, and therefore concluded that they belonged to a period when the configuration of the surface was different from what it is now, and he considered that their antiquity was possibly "even beyond that of the present world." The manner in which the flint implements lay, and their great abundance, led Mr. ”

“ Surface gravels. 3. Brick, earth, and gravel, with flint implements, mammalian remains, and land and fresh-water shells. 3. Peaty bed,with wood and land and fresh-water shells. 4. Bowlder-clay. 5. Sands and gravels. 6. Chalk, probably.
Fig 4.—Section showing the Actual Facts observed: 1. Surface gravels, "trail." 2. Clay resembling "upper bowlder-clay." 3. False-bedded sands and gravel flint. 3. Brick earth, flint implements scarce, land and fresh-water shells in lower part. 5. Gravel, many flint implements found by Mr. Frere. 6'. Lower bowlder-clay and "till." 7. ”