Page:Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London, vol. 28.djvu/65

1871.] flint-gravel at the base of the hill. In the shingle are a few Tertiary flint-pebbles, and not a few large unworn flints, with a number of sharp angular flint fragments. The only foreign material I found was a fragment of reddish quartzite. I saw no organic, remains of any description. But the pit requires further search, especially as the workmen were not present on the occasion of my visit.

I found, however, in bed a a rude flint implement; but whether derived from the surface or peculiar to bed a, I could not positively say. It was at a depth of 1$1⁄2$ foot from the surface. Its type is not sufficiently distinctive to indicate its age.

I have not yet succeeded in tracing this old shingle-beach further westward, where it is desirable to determine its exact position in relation to the several gravels of the South-Hampshire area.

There can be no mistake made about the character of the shingle. It is not so rounded as the Tertiary flint-pebbles, which can be readily distinguished amongst it, while it is far more worn than the subangular gravel at the base of the hill. In places there are signs of disturbance as though from the effects of ice-action—a feature which would be in accordance with the presence of the great transported foreign boulders found in the marine gravel of Selsea, and with the chalk boulders in the Chichester sea-beach.

While on this subject I may mention another point of interest connected with this area, which I noticed on the same occasion. Flint implements have been found at various places, and at various elevations, in the Hampshire basin —amongst others, in the valley of the Avon, near Fordingbridge, at an elevation of about 40 feet above the river. Five miles north of Fordingbridge is the village of Downton. On the hill immediately east of the village is Packham Common (now enclosed); and on the right hand of the road leading from Redlinch to Standlinch Down, and passing by the north-east corner of the former common, is a small chalk-pit (see fig. 1) capped by ochreous gravel. This consists as usual of subangular flints, and a few pebbles of quartz, with some worn fragments of iron-sandstone and flint pebbles from the adjacent Tertiary strata. It reposes upon a worn and furrowed surface of the chalk, and is from 2 to 7 feet thick. A portion of this bed had slipped down; and on examining the talus for the constituent parts of the gravel I found a small flint