376 Geological Society. 



endanger the lives of one or two engaged in this laborious work. 

 Even now, when special precautionary measures have been devised, 

 the "work of examination is attended with real and considerable 

 discomfort. 



Finally, this treatise is most exhaustive in its scope and profusely 

 illustrated. 



PROCEEDINGS OF LEARNED SOCIETIES. 



GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



January 10th, 1912.— Prof. W. W. Watts, Sc.D., LL.D., M.Sc, 

 F.R.S., President, in the Chair. 



The following communication was read : — 



' On a Late Glacial Stage in the Valley of the River Lea. subse- 

 quent to the Epoch of River-Drift Man.' By S. Hazzledine Warren, 

 F.G.S, With Reports on the Flowering Plants, by Francis J. 

 Lewis, M.Sc, F.L.S. ; on the Mosses, by H. N. Dixon, M.A., F.L.S. ; 

 on the Mollusca, by Alfred Santer Eennard, F.G.S., & Bernard 

 Barbara Woodward, F.L.S., F.G.S. ; on the Coleoptera, by C. 0, 

 Waterhouse, I.S.O., F.E.S. ; on the Entomostraca, by D. J. Scour- 

 field, F.R.M.S. ; and on the Microscopic Examination of the Sandy 

 Residue, by George Macdonald Davies, F.G.S. 



The paper describes a carbonaceous deposit, discovered by the 

 Author, which is embedded in the low-level River-Drift gravel of 

 the Lea Valley, in the neighbourhood of Poiider'a End. It belongs 

 to the close of the Pleistocene Period, and is very much later than 

 the Moustierian deposits. It may be of Magdalenian age, but there 

 is no evidence to suggest this. It is more probably post-Magda- 

 lenian, formed during the time of the supposed arch ideological 

 hiatus between the Palaeolithic and the Neolithic Epochs. The 

 deposit yields a varied fauna and flora, which has been the subject 

 of extended investigation. The results of this are embodied in the 

 reports which are appended to the paper. The conclusions arrived 

 at in these reports are in close agreement with each other, and 

 indicate climatic conditions similar to those now found in Lapland. 

 The evidence of this comparatively late Arctic climate in the South 

 of England is important. It throws much light on many vexed 

 questions, particularly with regard to the relationship of Palaeolithic 

 man to the Glacial Period, It may have been the Arctic con- 

 ditions represented by the Ponder's-End stage (as it might appro- 

 priately be named) which caused the migration of Palteolithic man 

 to less inclement regions. The correlation is also suggested 

 between the Ponder's-End stage and the ' Trail ' of the Rev. 0. 

 Fisher. The evidence is farther interesting, as showing another 

 important fluctuation of climate during the Pleistocene Period. 



