r 29 ] 



these inhabitants must have been, should not have left some traces 

 in pottery, charcoal, remains of bones, of a continued habitation. 

 Another suggestion was that they were storage barns for grain, 

 and what valuables they became possessed of, but if so why should 

 the shafts be filled up again so carefully ? And how was the entire 

 absence of anything of the sort accounted for ? A friend of his 

 from Cambridge suggested that they had been used as smugglers' 

 caves ; but this supposition could not, he thought, be maintained. 

 Another explanation must be sought, and he was fully convinced, 

 in his own mind, that the main purpose in view by the original 

 excavators of the shaft and galleries " was to obtain a supply of the 

 flint which occurred at this depth, for the manufacture of the 

 implements found so abundant on and immediately under the turf, 

 and of which so many cartloads of chippings could be obtained at 

 Cissbury." This theory was not his own, it was suggested nearly 

 two years ago by Canon Greenwell, who had said for some time 

 that in his opinion these workings would be discovered, if only one 

 went deep enough. He at first received it with great incredulity, 

 and for a long time was not convinced, but as the evidence which 

 he hoped to adduce was gradually revealed, he could no longer 

 hold out against it. 



The first objection which was urged by everyone unacquainted 

 with corroborative evidence, was, " Why should they go so deep for 

 flint when they could get it on the surface J' " To this was an- 

 swered that the flint was much softer and more easily worked when 

 freshly procured than when it had been dehydrated and weathered 

 by exposure, and further, this had been so often jproved that, at 

 the manufactory of gun flints, which was still carried on at the 

 little town of Brandon, in Sufl'ulk, they procure their I'aw material 

 at a consideraljle depth. Thus much for the suggestion. Did the 

 internal evidence support it ? Yes, he thought eminently it did. 

 In the bottom of cave 6, as before mentioned, existed, only 

 partially worked out, a layer of fine soft flint which must have 

 extended over the whole surface occupied by the base of the shaft 

 and caves. In this layer was observed a small hole in which a flint 

 had once rested in situ, and from which it had been extracted, and 

 from the numerous minute chippings still in the bed, it was evident 

 that it was chiselled out. The caves ran in the same line as the 

 layer of flint, and on the same level, and were filled up just as one 



