ON THE RELATION OF PALAOLITHIC MAN TO THE GLACIAL EPOCH. 411 
higher than at present, so that the Hoxne channel could be excavated to 
a depth slightly below that of the present main channel of the river 
Waveney. Then gradual subsidence turned this channel into a shallow 
freshwater lake, in which 20 feet of the lacustrine clay E was deposited. 
After the lake had silted up it was overgrown by a dense thicket of alders, 
which by their decay formed the lignite D, containing a Temperate flora 
like that of bed E. Next a further slight subsidence, or perhaps an 
irregular silting up of the lower part of the channel, caused lacustrine 
conditions to reappear, and another 20 feet of lacustrine strata (C) to be 
deposited ; but the climate had again become colder—in fact it was now 
an Arctic or sub-Arctic one. Then followed the floods which deposited the 
Paleolithic Beds B and A, only parts of which seem to be truly fluviatile; 
and finally the strata became sandy and perhaps of eolian origin. To 
summarise :—The channel after being scoured to a depth equal to that of 
the existing valley of the Waveney, and considerably below that of its 
existing tributaries, the river Dove and Gold Brook, was filled up with 
fully 50 feet of sediment. It was in fact so.completely filled that the 
streams have since taken quite different courses, and we cannot identify 
the Pleistocene channel as belonging to any existing valley. 
During the excavation and silting up of the channel the climatic con- 
ditions seem to have changed at least twice. Of the nature of the transi- 
tion from the Arctic conditions indicated by the Boulder Clay to the mild 
period represented by the lacustrine clay E and the lignite D we have at . 
present no evidence. But of the existence of a mild period subsequent 
to the formation of the Chalky Boulder Clay and previous to the reappear- 
ance of Arctic conditions, we can now produce sufficient evidence in the long 
list of Temperate plants found in Beds Dand E. The Paleolithic deposits 
at Hoxne are therefore not only later than the latest Boulder Clay of 
East Anglia, but are separated from it by two climatic waves, with 
corresponding changes of the flora. Such sweeping changes cannot have 
been local ; they must have affected wide areas. 
It may perhaps be advisable before concluding to guard ourselves 
against any misapprehension as to the exact outcome of this inquiry. It 
is true that the evidence is now perfectly clear that the well-known Paleo- 
lithic implements of Hoxne are much later than the Boulder Clay of that 
district. But it by no means follows that man did not live in the district 
while the Arctic leaf-bed C or the lacustrine strata D and E were being 
deposited, though no implements (or stones of any sort over an inch in 
diameter) were found in them. It is possible that in other districts man 
may be inter-Glacial or pre-Glacial, but on this question the Hoxne exca- 
vations throw no light ; they only show that a race of men using imple- 
- ments of the Hoxne type certainly inhabited Suffolk long after the latest 
glaciation of that district. Whether precisely the same form of imple- 
ment is likely to have been in use in Britain in both pre-Glacial and post- 
Glacial times is a question into which we need not enter. 
