Page:VCH Suffolk 1.djvu/282

 A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK long anterior action, which probably ended by scattering them over a wide surface of land rather than gathering them into a gravel, and that they thus had a second long exposure to atmospheric conditions before arriving at their present resting-place. Our ovates, themselves probably divisible into several sub-periods, belong to a period of palaeolithic life wrhich is unrepre- sented in the Thames Valley, teeming as this latter does vv^ith remains of ' drift ' man. After being made they were exposed on the surface of the earth for a time sufficient to induce colour changes, far beyond anything that we see in the oldest neolithic flints. Then they were subjected by nature to some very rough usage which markedly chipped their edges. They then lay exposed to the air and the elements for a further period long enough to induce white porcelainouB patination of the chipped surfaces. Then came the diluvial conditions which washed them into their present resting place at Warren Hill ; since which time many great changes in the earth's surface have occurred, including the vast denudation which gave rise to the Fen district ; and later on (as we shall see) the scooping out of the valley of the present River Lark and its affluents. This gives us some hint of the vast periods involved in the consideration of ' drift ' man. We will now pass to the next series of gravels on the ridge, viz. : those at High (Warren) Lodge,' by the side of the Mildenhall-Thetford road. They lie about three-quarters of a mile north of Warren Hill, and the summit of the ridge is about 1 20 ft. above the Ordnance datum, and there- fore about 50 ft. higher than the present upper limit of the Warren Hill gravels. The situation of the High Lodge gravel is, however, a very remarkable one, and is worthv of careful description and study. JUj2h_ O iaarammaJUc SlUtcli, of the, ridg e FhlXtnuffJ hmmii Oxrbndyt* the fern VYtir ezzzz JecliofV oL Hid^ e (hroujQh MU^jt/i MUL TyarOnund ktmsnijQnnbrtdgeifht tbrs Sectimi. of Pidqe Vun i gh High Lodpe Mtjl -£av jj n»4 plan and bccrioni art purely di<i^rontinaA« Ond art qor draMn r^ ftcal^. Sections of thl Warren Hill Ridge ' This name is given to avoid confusion with another ' High Lodge ' about 2 miles away on the Eriswell- Elveden Road. 242