271 



On some Flint-flakes, from the Valley of the Churn, at Cirmeester. 

 By W. T. Thiselton Dyer, B.A., B.Sc. 



It may be considered worth while to record in the Proceedings 

 of the Club, the occurrence at Cirencester of small flint-flakes 

 in considerable numbers. They are found in the top spit of 

 movdd beneath the turf, when this is removed to allow of the 

 excavation of the gravel at the Barton Pits. My attention was 

 called to them in 1869, by Mr. OsRiiT, a student at the Agricul- 

 tural College, who has paid a good deal of attention to Geology, 

 and is a keen observer. I afterwards found them myself in situ 

 in the layer of mould, varying from nine inches to a foot in 

 thickness, which is exposed in the section formed by the pit 

 side. The gravel is apparently derived from the Inferior Oolite, 

 as it contained rolled examples of Terehrattda fimbria, and other 

 characteristic fossils. I found, as might be expected, no flints 

 in this, but only in the superincumbent soil. 



The flakes which I collected were very rude ; some were flat 

 with a triangular outline, others oblong, and of about the 

 same size as those figured by Mr. Jones, from Stroud HiU.* 

 They were, however, far less regularly formed than these, as 

 I also ascertained by examining some in the possession of 

 Mr. WicHELL. I showed the most presentable of what I 

 found to Mr. Franks, at the British Museum. He accepted a 

 few of them as being of human manufacttire, and selected 

 examples for the Christy collection. Supposing, as it is not 

 impossible many persons will do, that these flints are too 



* Proceedings, vol. iii., p. 103. 



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