22 HILLS AND VALES. 



bones 'of mammoth, rhinoceros, bear, ox, stag, roe, horse, wolf, 

 &c., the remains of a population for the most part earlier than 

 the pristine human inhabitants of the downs and wolds. 



On the upward sloping borders of the Yale of Kennet flint flakes 

 and stone instruments occur, especially near the numerous mounds 

 and tumuli, which mark sometimes early stages of British history, 

 but more frequently belong to pre-historicai periods. If to these 

 indications of ancient occupation we add the magnificent megaliths 

 of Avebury, near the source of the Kennet, it will be evident that 

 in ruder and simpler ages the dry chalk wolds were the favourite 

 haunts of hunters and shepherds, warriors and priests. From these 

 elevated ' speculse ' the far-off foe could be safely watched ; by the 

 abundant springs the cattle could be reared ; and in the deep 

 woody vales wild-boars and wolves, the roe and red-deer, could be 

 chased by the hound and reached by the stone-tipped spear, long 

 ages before the British Islands became part of the known world. 



This abundance of gravel, varied with extensive, mostly superin- 

 cumbent, deposits of brick-earth and local accumulations of peat, 

 accompanies the Thames to the tide-way, and hides for the most 

 part the eocene deposits, which really extend from Reading to the 

 German Ocean. 



Having thus traced a general view of the principal areas of 

 elevation and depression within the scope of our survey, we may 

 turn to a narrower view of some of the special phenomena which 

 are dependent on these physical peculiarities of the surface within 

 the drainage of the Thames. 



