104 "^^E PALAEOLITHIC PERIOD 



which were produced in them by the sun's ra3's, in PalaeoHthic 

 times, have been preserved, having been filled up and covered 

 with loam. There are sometimes strewn with the flakes result- 

 ing from the manufacture of implements. 



On tlie accompanying sketch map of the Thames Basin, I 

 have shewn the chief locaUties at which Palaeolithic implements 

 have been found. Those places at v/hich the actual working sites 

 of Palaeolithic man have been discovered are indicated by dots, 

 while those which have yielded the characteristic tongue shaped 

 weapons are indicated by small circles. 



The most westerly locality with which I am acquainted is 

 Wolvercote,^ near Oxford, where Bell obtained one or two 

 tongue-shaped implements, together with remains of urus and 

 elephant. More recently the same gentleman has made a large 

 discovery in this district of which, however, I have no details to 

 hand. 



Proceeding along the main valley eastwards, the next locality 

 is Wallingford from which Sir John Evans {op. cit.) has 

 recorded several of the characteristic implements. 



An excellent summary of the discoveries in the Reading 

 district has been made by Shrubsole.^ On the north bank, in a 

 pit near Caversham, at 114 feet above the present level of the 

 river, he has obtained a large number of the tongue-shaped 

 weapons from a bed of gravel resting on chalk. He concludes 

 that they could not have been made far from the spot upon 

 which they were found. He also mentions the finding of a 

 horse's tooth in the same deposit. At Shiplake, about three 

 miles distant, he found specimens at a sliglitly lower level. 

 Turning to the south side, he mentions obtaining, in Reading 

 itself, numerous specimens of the discoidal axe-heads from gravel 

 overlying the Palaeogene clays. Together with these he found 

 flakes which had been used as scrapers and two fragments of 

 bone " which had been cut as if by a flint implement, which, 

 when put together, are seen to have formed part of the same 

 bone which had evidently been split before it became embedded 

 in the gravel." From the same bed of drift, which varies from 

 14 to 19 feet in thickness, he obtained remains of elephant, 

 rhinoceros and horse. 



6 A. M. Bell, " Palaeolithic Remains at Wolvercote," Antiquary xxx. 



7 O. A. Shrubsole " On the Valley Gravels about Reading." Quait. Journ Geol; Soc. 

 xlvi. (1890). 



