240 Correspondence — J. Reid Moir. 



The points raised by your correspondent, Professor McKenny 

 Hughes, F.R.S., as to the impossibility of being able to recognize 

 after a period of years where ground had been disturbed by a grave 

 having been dug, and his statement that the material which occurred 

 over the bones was not Boulder-clay, are very important and call 

 for the fullest investigation. Your other contributor, Mr. George 

 Slater, F.G.S., who quotes very fullv the reports of Mr. W. 

 Whitaker, F.R.S., Mr. John E. Marr, F.R.S., Professor A. Keith, 

 and those of us who saw the bones I'emoved, makes a curious 

 omission in that he gives no detailed reference to the report which 

 he himself gave me in reference to the section in Messrs. Bolton and 

 Laughlin's pit where the skeleton was found. 



This report, dated October 21, 1911, and signed by Mr. Slater, is 

 before me as I write, and contains the following paragraphs : — 



" As the bones had been removed and a ' nitch ' cut down from the 

 top of the pit to a depth of about 4 feet a clear section was sliown, 

 but of course there was no means of ascertaining the exact condition 

 of the material removed. Judging from the section noiv exposed this 

 portion of the pit varies in tw way from other parts of the section, and 

 shows a clear atid undisturbed section of iveathered Boulder-clay over the 

 calcareous sands m which the retnains tvere found. 



" There is no reason to doubt that tlie sands and gravels are derived 

 from glacial material, containing as they do derived Jurassic material, 

 and the Boidder-clay is part of the large sheet exposed so tvell iri the 

 neighboiiring pit further to the east of Henley Boad." 



This lucid statement was the result of a very careful examination 

 of the section by Mr. Slater, who has known and visited this pit for 

 years. Yet I find he states on p. 165 of your Magazine that " The 

 general section on this side of the pit [the side on which the skeleton 

 was found] is extremely unsatisfactory", and I am left wondering as 

 to why the section under discussion lias so suddenly presented itself 

 to him in such an unsatisfactory aspect. 



I also notice that on p. 166 he states that the plateau half a mile 

 to the east of the site where the remains were found " reaches a height 

 of about 160 feet " and that this " gives a gradient of roughW fifty feet 

 in half a mile" (the italics are mine). This, however, is incorrect, as 

 my friend Mr. Henry Miller, M.I.C.E., County Surveyor for East 

 Suffolk, has lately taken the levels for me, and these show that the 

 surface of the ground above the spot where the bones occurred lies at 

 a level of 129-01 O.D., and the highest point to the east, half a mile 

 away, is 155-24 O.D. 



Thus the gradient in half a mile is roughly 26 feet, not 50 feet as 

 stated by Mr. Slater. 



J. Reid Moir. 



12 St. EDnruND's Eoad, Ipswich. 

 April 10, 1912. 



