102 



of Dean, we are reminded that the dip mentioned commences there, 

 affecting all the intervening beds, from the upper portion of the New 

 Eed Sandstone to those of the Great Oolite near ns, and the beds more 

 especially under consideration. At this point, and in many neighbouring 

 places, as before remarked, the Oolitic beds upon the edge of the hill 

 are not in their original position, and were accompanied, when the change 

 took place, by the more recent formation, indicating that this must 

 have been deposited where we find it prior to their disturbance. 

 Previous to the scooping out of the picturesque " combes " around us, 

 which contribute so much to the beauty of one of the finest landscapes 

 of its kind in England, the now distant hill-tops must have formed 

 portions of a widely-continuous level tract, presenting, probably, the 

 features of a dreary upland moor, alternations of morass and thicket, 

 the deposit before us possibly representing the bottom of one of its 

 ponds of considerable capacity, subject to accession of sediment, from 

 the efiect of storm torrents or periodical rains upon the land sur- 

 rounding it. 



Of the period as computable by years, during which these creatures 

 have existed, we can no move form an idea than of any other beyond the 

 pale of history or tradition, but we are informed of the contemporaneous 

 existence of man, by the presence of flint instruments with cutting 

 edges, carbonised wood, oolitic stone changed in colour by the action 

 of fire, the bones of animals, a portion of a deer's antler, apparently 

 that of the red deer, and what, from the description of the workmen 

 who had not cared to preserve it, was probably the tusk of a boar, all in 

 close proximity. These objects were found in about the middle of the 

 second bed : the flint instruments by Mr. Witchell ; the others, with 

 the exception of the tusk, by both of us together. No disturbance of the 

 soil subsequent to their entombment, nor for the purpose of making it, was 

 anywhere traceable ; and had this taken place, it must have been apparent 

 from the necessary displacement of the tufa-looking crust of the upper 

 portion, which, as we specially remarked, diff"ers much in litho- 

 logical character from that in which they were found. One of the 

 pieces of burnt Oolite, more resembling freestone than any of the beds 

 above it, and probably from the slaty bed above the lower Oolite Marl, 

 must evidently have been carried up to the spot upon which it was 

 found, as well as the flints. All these objects were found, not in a heap, 

 but in such relative positions as they might be expected to occupy on 

 being thrown or dropped into a pond of moderate depth. 



The flints are so admirably preserved, that their cutting edges are as 

 well adapted to fulfil their purpose, as when they were first made ; their 



