332 EVIDENCES OF PREHISTORIC MAN IN WEST KENT. 



gravel than by stating that the Well Hill river seems to have 

 found its base level at 6io feet O.D., whilst the Darent still 

 pursues its course and is . still capable of denundation at 

 I CO feet CD. 



Another point our opponents have not been slow in using is 

 the fact that on the surface of the North Downs — the classic 

 station for Eoliths — implements of all types and in all stages of 

 bleaching occur in association, claiming, therefrom, that no reliance 

 can be placed on what are merely surface finds. The total lack 

 of even early Palaeolithic forms and the occurrence of typical 

 Eoliths only in the sections there exposed by Mr. Harrison have 

 curiously enough suffered entire negligence. On broad grounds 

 it is quite possible to distinguish between the ages of various 

 surface implements, although obviously the position made from 

 such evidence cannot be put forward as conclusive. But 

 although various types are found in close association on the 

 surface of the Downs, what is true there may not apply to other 

 stations. So far as my experience is concerned at Well Hill, the 

 summit-level, or that part of it available for search, is totally 

 unproductive of any evidence for Palaeolithic man ; this is all the 

 more noticeable, as on the lower levels of the hill I have found 

 Palaeolithic and Neolithic flakes and implements not in scores, 

 but in hundreds. This isolation of Eolithic implements on the 

 highest level of the district is surely of some importance in the 

 question of the antiquity of the various types of worked flints. 

 It should be remembered, however, that the plateau or Eolithic 

 types are not necessarily confined to the highest levels in any one 

 district, as owing to prolonged denudation they have been trans- 

 ported to lower ground ; a fact again supporting their antiquity, 

 for they occur as derivatives in deposits which are themselves of 

 great antiquity. It is necessary to take every care in defining 

 the limits of the plateau gravels. There is, it seems to me, a 

 tendency to regard every deposit containing Eoliths as Eolithic 

 or plateau drift — a course fraught with danger when it becomes 

 necessary to prove the antiquity of the true high level gravels. 

 Remembering that the deposits of the Wealden rivers have been 

 subjected to a long period of denudation during the cutting of the 

 east to west channels, it is quite possible that the Eoliths now 

 found on lower levels are really there by the denudation going 

 on whilst man was in the Palasohthic stage of his progress. 



