288 Mr Fisher, On implement-hearing loams in Suffolk. [Nov. 10, 



I saw was horizontal. It contained a carbonaceous layer with 

 numerous fragments of bone in a state of great decay and also 

 fragments of cyclas and lymncea. Here Mr Skertchly w^ith the 

 assistance of a labourer dug out an implement from the car- 

 bonaceous layer. 



The last place to which I was led was the Culford Brick pit. 

 This is a large pit in full work with steam machinery on a small 

 scale. The section here is most unmistakably clear. There are 

 about fifteen feet of solid boulder clay containing large flints 

 being at the termination of the general spread which covers a 

 great part of Suffolk. This boulder clay overlies a massive deposit 

 of well stratified loamy brickearth, of a tawney colour, very pure 

 and good. Out of this loam Mr Skertchly, in company with Mr 

 Bennett, dug an undoubted worked flint. Had I seen this pit 

 first, and had the worked flint been then found in it, I should 

 never have had any doubts upon the subject. As it was, my belief 

 was led up to the point of certainty by degrees, as I hope I have 

 had the satisfaction of having led yours. This pit is about five 

 miles to the North West of Bury St Edmunds, at the North West 

 corner of Culford Park, and is easily reached from Bury. If any 

 one should wish for ocular demonstration of the correctness of the 

 views of Mr Skertchly, he can obtain it with perfect ease by visiting 

 this spot from Bury. 



There can be no doubt that this discovery carries back the 

 presence of man in this district by a very long period. I had my 

 suspicions that the glacial clay beneath which his works had been 

 found might be nothing more than that material which I call trail, 

 and which has the appearance of a glacial deposit but is certainly 

 newer than our earlier river gravels. But that is not the case. 

 The boulder clay which covers the loams which Mr Skertchly has 

 named the "Brandon beds" is certainly a member of the great 

 chalky boulder clay, and the loam, also resting in some places upon 

 boulder clay, is rightly called an interglacial deposit. 



I would read you a sentence from an old note-book of mine 

 referring to a discussion which took place in the Senate-House 

 when the British Association met here in 1862. 



" Mr Godwin Austen gave an interesting summary on drift, and 

 said that the Diluvial drift phenomena extended to 40" latitude, 

 and at its southern extremity the drift might be seen overlapping 

 the older fluviatile deposits, and that he was of opinion that man 

 existed previously to that submergence, and that it was of such a 

 catastrophe that traditions were preserved among all Northern 

 Nations." His prevision has now been proved correct (as has hap- 

 pened also in another very different matter). Nor yet can we stop 

 at the interglacial. Professor J. D. Whitney is said to have explored 



