332 KEPOBT — 1888. 



The chalk floor close to the cliff is at about the level of the present 

 high-water mark, so that the top of the beach here is decidedly above 

 that level, though not so far above but that a stormy sea and heavy tide 

 might yet overwhelm it. Now, though on a long sloping shore the beach 

 material is usually flung to the highest point that the tide reaches, 

 against a vertical cliff the sea nearly always rises higher than its shingle, 

 and we therefore think that when the old beach was formed the land 

 stood slightly higher than at present. It is remarkable, however, how 

 slight is the difference in level between these two beaches, separated as 

 they are by such a wide interval of time, and by such a cycle of changes 

 as the Glacial period. Nor, were it not for the comparative scarcity of 

 foreign pebbles in the former, is there much difference in appearance 

 between the ancient and the modern beach. The chalk pebbles in both 

 are worn into the same shapes and bored in the same way, and the few 

 shells that are to be found in either are of the same species. It is not 

 until we come to examine the bones of the mammals that we find the 

 effect of the lapse of time. The elephant, rhinoceros, hippopotamus, and 

 elk have gone, but the periwinkle and oyster remain. 



The Land-surface. — Close at the cliff-foot the beach is covered by a 

 deposit of marly clay with angular and subangnlar masses of fallen chalk 

 and streaks of drifted sand, that has evidently accumulated sub-aerially as 

 talus and rain- wash. This deposit is about 5 feet thick where it touches 

 the cliff, but does not extend far outwards, dovetailing rapidly into the 

 blown-sand, so that no trace of it is to be found at more than 20 feet 

 from the cliff. 



Bones occasionally occur in this bed, generally in the lower part of it, 

 and we also found in a seam of yellow earthy clay many small land-shells 

 and obscure traces of vegetation along with two or three teeth of vole 

 and fragments of birds' bones. 



It contains no marine remains whatever, and no sea-worn pebbles. 

 The sea had evidently quite abandoned the cliff when this bed was 

 formed, though the character of the junction with the old beach shows 

 that this abandonment took place gradually. Possibly, with no change 

 of level, the sand dunes may have accumulated so as to shut out the sea, 

 and this deposit may then have formed in the hollow between them and 

 the cliff. A few very small angular fragments of grey flint occur in the 

 bed (which are noteworthy, as there is no flint in the cliff above), and we 

 also occasionally found small rounded bean-like pebbles of ancient rocks. 

 These, as one of our Committee pointed out, have probably drifted up 

 from the sea-shore of the period entangled in rolling balls of seaweed, 

 such as travel with the wind on most sandy shores. 



This bed, though so limited in breadth, has extended along the whole 

 length of cliff already exposed and shows no signs of thinning, so that it 

 is probably not, as we at first thought probable, a local talus-heap but a 

 regular accumulation extending laterally along the cliff- foot. 



We thought this our most promising ground, somewhat analogous to 

 a ' cave earth ' formed in the open ; but in our recent excavations it has 

 disappointed us, our finds in tbis part of the series being fewer and 

 poorer than thofe of last year. 



The Blown-sands. — A great mass of clean yellow sand, without 

 admixture save for a few blocks of fallen chalk and an occasional bone, 

 overlies the rain- wash, and also overlaps it so as to rest directly on the 

 old beach at the outer edge of our excavation. This reaches quite up to 



