Page:Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London, vol. 28.djvu/66

40 implement, very well finished, and of the ovoid type, colour, and aspect common to those found at Waren's Pit, St. Acheul. It is 3$1⁄4$ inches long by 1$3⁄4$ broad, finely pointed, and white, with a porcellaneous lustre. It shows no wear. I could find no other, nor any organic remains. The elevation of the pit, according to the levels obligingly furnished me by General Sir Henry James, is about 200 feet above the river, which is here 115 feet above the sea-level.

Between this pit and the river are two other well-marked broad gravel terraces, in the lower one of which mammalian remains have been found abundantly in other parts of the Avon valley. The section is as in fig. 1.

The level of the lower terrace is from 30 to 70 feet above the river, of the second from 150 to 180 feet, and of the third or upper terrace about 200 to 250 feet.

This discovery is in keeping with that of the flint implements in the gravel of the cemetery at Salisbury, which Mr. Evans estimates at 110 feet above the river, and with those of Southampton Common, which Mr. Codrington places at an elevation of 86 and 150 feet above the river at Southampton. The difference, with the first-named of these spots especially, is that there the flint implements are of the rudest pattern and make, whereas at Downton the implement is of the neatest and best-finished construction, although the gravel is one of the oldest in the district, being prior to the excavation of the valley to the greater depth of some 200 feet, to the spread of the lower gravels, and apparently to the great development of the Postglacial mammalia.

Mr. stated that, according to the Ordnance Survey, the level of the pit at Cams Wood was not more than 100 feet above the sea, so that it was at about the same level as the gravels of Titchfield and elsewhere.

Mr. remarked that the flint flake from Cams Wood presented no characters such as would prove it to be of palæolithic age. He was, on the contrary, inclined to regard it as having been derived from the surface. He commented on the height at which the Downton implement had been discovered, which was, however, not so great but that the containing gravels might be of fluviatile origin.

Mr. thought that if the beds at Cams Wood were marine, some remains of marine organisms might be found in them. If these were absent, he should rather be inclined to regard them as fluviatile.

Mr. J. W. contended that the gravel at Downton could not be of fluviatile origin. He thought, indeed, that the gravel was actually at a higher level than the present source of the river. If this were so, he maintained that the transport of the gravel by fluviatile action was impossible. He further observed that gravels precisely similar, also containing implements, had now been found, as well in the Hampshire area as elsewhere, the transport of which, in his view, could not possibly be attributed to any existing rivers.