WEST PURfcECK MEETING. lix. 



now becomes a hill. Can I bring the plateau gravel on the top 

 of this hill ? I believe that it has been there, but, unfortunately, 

 we cannot find it now. This will be the great difficulty in any 

 future investigations as to the origin of Creech Barrow to 

 prove that there has been at some time or other, to help in the 

 protection of these soft clays, a great amount of clay with flints 

 which has been, as it were, banded and pugged together, and 

 thus constituted the good strong cover which has protected it 

 from the usual agents of denudation acting through a long period 

 of time. The principal evidence for the existence of this hypo- 

 thetical bed of gravel is that, about a thousand yards from 

 the summit of the hill on the north side, there is a large deposit 

 of clayey gravel, which has been worked, but, unfortunately, we 

 do not know the full extent of it. The late Mr. Pike thought it 

 130 feet thick, but the men think it 90 feet. It is impossible 

 without investigation to say what the thickness is. But it is a 

 peculiar phenomenon, and I suggest that that bed of gravel has, 

 to a certain extent, been slid off these slippery clays, especially 

 during a period when there was a great deal of snow the so- 

 called Glacial period which would facilitate deposit on the 

 north side of a slope. I believe that that gravel bed, which is 

 now on the 300 feet contour, was originally a portion of a great 

 mass of flinty gravel and clay on the top of this hill. Another 

 proof is that, go where you will round about the foot of this hill, 

 you are always kicking up great flints. Where do they come 

 from ? They do not come very far, for all flints have their 

 origin in the chalk which is close at hand. They belong to that 

 peculiar class of flints which are found on the top of the 

 Chalk, and are known to occur in the form of clay with flints. 

 They are large unrolled flints, which have not come from 

 any great distance. Those flints are also evidence to a certain 

 extent of the existence of my hypothetical gravel bed on the top 

 of this hill. There is another large exposure of gravel in the 

 neighbourhood of Furzebrook, of which also it may form a part. 

 But we cannot say what the hill itself consists of, for the whole 

 hill, especially the top of it, has been thoroughly sophisticated. 



