ALLUVIUM. 73 



was temperate, for in the lowest " submerged forests " the oak is 

 the most abundant tree. Then gradual and intermittent sub- 

 mergence flooded the lower parts of the valleys, and caused them 

 to be silted up by the deposits of the rivers that no longer had 

 sufficient fall to scour their beds. In some of the peaty deposits, 

 or old vegetable soils that mark stages of rest in their process of 

 submergence, we find polished stone weapons, and relics of 

 cultivated plants and of domesticated animals. Since the close 

 of the Neolithic Period changes in physical geography have been 

 slight.' 1 



With due allowance for the changes in level and the artificial 

 modifications, it is held that the physical features in neolithic 

 times were much like those at the present day ; and that settle- 

 ments were made by neolithic men, who were herdsmen and 

 tillers, on the chalk uplands and on the less elevated tracts of 

 sand and gravel of Eocene and later date. Clearances of 

 woodland were begun before the time of the Roman occupation. 



Among the stone implements and weapons are axes or 

 celts, scrapers, arrow-heads, etc. They include some of the 

 roughly chipped ' mesoliths ' of early date, the finely chipped or 

 ground and polished neolithic celts, and certain pygmy imple- 

 ments which are considered to belong to the Neolithic or early 

 Bronze period. 2 Many celts have been dredged from the Thames ; 

 other implements and weapons have been found in various 

 localities in the soil, but not often in the valley-deposits. The 

 late George Clinch has drawn attention to the evidence of a 

 factory of neolithic implements at Millfield, Keston, and to 

 many pit-dwellings or hut circles of Neolithic age in various 

 parts of Surrey and Kent. Many relics of the Bronze Age have 

 been found in the Thames, and in the Wey near Wey bridge. 

 Dug-out canoes of oak, belonging to that period, have been found 

 in excavations for the Albert Docks at North Woolwich, at 

 Walthamstow, and on the bank of the Wey south of Brooklands. 



Indications of pile dwellings, probably of the Iron Age, have 

 been described as occurring at the mouth of the Fleet and of 

 the Wandle, in the Lea Valley, in Southwark, and at Kew. 3 



The following are the principal Holocene mammalia which 

 have been recorded from the district; those marked f being 

 extinct, and those marked J no longer living in Britain : 



J Alces machlis Ogilby - - Elk or Moose. 



Bos taurus, var. longifrons Owen Keltic short-horn (probable an- 

 cestor of Welsh and Highland 

 cattle). 



t primigenius Boj. - Urus (probably extinct before 



Roman occupation). 



1 * Origin of the British Flora,' 1899, p. 46; see also Memorandum on Coast 

 Erosion, by C. Reid, Rep. R. Comm. on Coast Erosion, Appendix XII. (A), 

 1907, p. 163. 



2 Johnson, W., and W. Wright, 'Neolithic Man in N.E. Surrey,* 1903; 

 1 Guide to Antiquities of the Stone Age,' British Museum, 2nd Ed., 1911. 



3 See, for instance, Gomme, Sir L., Oeog. Journal, vol. xxxi, 1908, p. 490. 



