Jflint Implements 

 Jfounb at fJorteBham liming 1894 mib 1895. 



By Mr. E. CUNNINGTON. 



3THE Ordnance Map before us will easily show where 

 these flints were found : On the steep side of the 

 narrow valley, down which runs the road from 

 Winterbourne. It appears to have been originally 

 a natural depression, or pot-hole, in the chalk, 

 taken advantage of by the stone implement maker 

 as a nice cosy sheltered spot for his operations. 

 Many centuries went by, and the depression was 

 filled up by accumulations caused by rain and falling materials from 

 above. 



Of late years this particular swallow-hole was undermined by 

 quarrying work, and the flints gradually fell out to the lower level. 

 These depressions are very common in the chalk, and may be 

 seen often by the side of railway cuttings and chalk quarries ; they 

 arc original irregularities caused by the upheaval of the chalk, and 

 are usually filled by a dark brown clay, the result of rain washing 

 the chalk down from higher ground, and this charged with excess 

 of carbonic acid derived from decaying vegetable matter. 



There is a large one on Poundbury Farm, where I have dug out 

 the specimens before you, of Roman and earlier remains. Some- 

 times chalk fossils drop into these swallow-holes, and get coloured 



