72 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



the point marked B in general section to a depth of seventeen feet 

 from the top of the surface-soil, and obtained the section shown in 

 Fig. 9. The most noticeable feature in this section is the thickening 

 out of the false-bedded sands and gravels, their resemblance to the 

 middle glacial series, and the absence of the "white-brick earth " (7 in 

 section). In a pit a little east of this, Prof. Prestwich and Mr. John 

 Evans found a flint implement in the gravel-bed (3 in section). 



Fie. 8. 1. Sandy "trail" with flints graduating downward into sand, filling pipes in clay below. 

 2. Unstratifled yellow clay, containing isolated angular patches of reddish sand. 3. 'Whitish 

 sand with a few scattered pebbles, sometimes changing into reddish sand, like that of the 

 patches in the clay above. 4. Yellowish-brown clay O l red-brick earth"), unstratifled at top 

 and graduating downward into laminated calcareous clay. 



I have now given all the facts at present known respecting the re- 

 lation of these beds to the Glacial period, and I proceed to the consid- 

 eration of Prof. Prestwich's theoretical views, as shown in the general 

 section (Fig. 3). In the first place, Prof. Prestwich identifies the bowl- 

 der-clay seen in the pit on the east side of the brook as the upper 

 bowlder-clay. As I have already mentioned, it in no respect resem- 

 bles the clay seen in other sections above the false-bedded sands and 

 gravel, and the existence of the middle glacial beds below this par- 

 ticular deposit is entirely theoretical. Prof. Prestwich makes these 

 sands and gravel to pass under the brick-clays; and I feel confident 

 it will astonish many of those who appeal to this section, as proof of 

 the post-glacial age of palaeolithic man, to learn that they have never 

 been seen in this position, and that their presence is an assumption 

 only. The " red-brick earth " ought, according to Prof. Prestwich's 

 views, to thin out eastward, and the dark clays or "red-brick earth" 

 to crop up to the surface from underneath it. Instead of this, as 

 shown in Fig. 8, at the point B in general section, the " red-brick 

 earth " follows down the slope of the hill, and is not underlaid at all 

 at that point by the dark clays. I do not, however, attach much im- 

 portance to this, as the " red-brick earth " might mantle the hill, 

 overlapping the edge of the dark clays, and yet Prof. Prestwich's 

 general idea of the relation of the latter to the glacial beds be correct. 

 What I do wish to point out is, that that relation is not proved by 

 any of the facts known, and that an entirely different interpretation 



