208 



On a Deposit at Stroud Hill, containing Flint Implements, Lomd and 

 Freshwater Shells, kc. By Edwin Witchell, F.G.S.* 



Read at Cheltenham, Maech 9th, 1864. 



Ik the course of some excavations in the construction of a reservoir, 

 near the summit of Stroud Hill, made during the past summer, I 

 observed in the clay, at a depth of about two feet from the surface, a 

 deposit, which on examination I found was full of land shells, with a 

 few freshwater bivalves. A list of these shells has been made by Mr. 

 John Jones, one of our colleagues, who with myself collected most of 

 them in the course of a short visit at the works, and, with the exception 

 of two which have been lately found by me, they are contained in his 

 interesting paper upon the subject of this deposit published in the Trans- 

 actions of last year. The two additional shells are Helix lamellata, 

 and H. lapicida ; the former, as I am informed by Mr. Jones, not being 

 now an inhabitant of this part of England. 



The deposit was a kind of tufa ; it contained near its base numerous 

 flat stones, fragments of the stony bands formed of the valves of Ostrea 

 acuminata, a shell which characterizes the upper portion of the Fullers- 

 earth. Some of them were of considerable size, and the surfaces of the 

 whole showed signs of erosive action. It was traced up the slope of the 

 hill to the extent of 126 feet, and along the hill-side about 60 feet ; in 

 the latter direction its extent was not disclosed by the works, but traces 

 of it were found in a pit at a distance of 120 yards. 



As the excavation proceeded, I discovered in the deposit several flint 

 flakes, of the usual primitive type, flint nuclei, part of an arrow-head, 

 fragments of an antler, a tusk, (probably of a boar,) with numerous 

 small pieces of carbon ard small stones, which had been subjected to the 

 action of fire. Flint flakes, two arrow-heads, bones, &c., have been found 

 by other persons visiting the spot. 



In the overlying earth, which varied from two to four feet in thickness, 

 a few pieces of rude pottery were picked up. 



* To enable those members of the Club who are not acquainted with the locality 

 better to understand this paper, I beg to refer them to the section made by Mr. John 

 Jones, which is in the last Transactions, at page 103. 



