36 



is capable of washing such large quantities of flints fi'om the chalk, thta-o 

 can be no question. But, whence the water? A very remarkable 

 instance of the power cf water to remove flints and erode the chalk is 

 recorded in the Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society for May, 

 1889, as ha^Tug occurred near Ightham. on July 31st, 1888, when, as I 

 am informed by Mr. B. Harrison, about four inches of rain fell in one 

 night ! This quantity, congested in certain lanes, tore up old water- 

 courses and eroded the chalk, carrying immense quantities of flints great 

 distances, and distributed them over large areas of ground, to the thick- 

 ness of several feet ! Such a rain-fall, or series of rain-falls, would be 

 competent to carry the stones found in the Hougham valley. Thit this 

 deposit must have occurred very many years ago, may be with some 

 degree of certainty, asserted ; the large accumulation of snail shells, and 

 those of such species as have their habitat on downs and heath-lands, 

 points to a time long before the land was cultivated, and when there 

 could have been but a few inches of soil at most covering the loosely de- 

 posited flints. I have no information as to when the land was first 

 brought under the plough, but it must be many years ago, the accumula- 

 tion of the one foot, and in some places of two feet of soil above the 

 flints, points to a long period of time having elapsed from the depositing 

 of the flints to the present. 



Whether the above is a correct solution of the problem or not. I am 

 of opinion that any explanation of the hypothesis must answer the two 

 important queries, viz., How the objects came beneath the flints; and 

 how the flin ts got there ? 



