Dr. Nils Olof Hoist — The Ice Age in England. 423 



resemble one another in that they flowed when the whole of Northern 

 Europe lay considerably higher than at present.' 



As regards such comparatively small rivers as the Thames, the 

 Frome, and the Avon, the period of their strongest erosion certainly 

 seems to have been somewhat later (Abstr. Proc. Geol. Soc, 1915, 

 No. 972, pp. 70-1 ; No. 974, p. 85). But this does not contradict 

 the supposition that they may have begun their course somewhat 

 earlier, perhaps indeed near to the period of the Cromer River. 



Palseolithic implements are said, as is well known, to have been 

 found in the deposits of the Cromer Eiver. The finds that I have 

 had the opportunity of examining seem, however, to have an Eolithic 

 rather than a Palseolithic cast. True Palseolithic finds cannot, 

 however, be said to be entirely unexpected, since if the human jaw 

 from Mauer really is contemporaneous with the Mastodon fauna 

 occurring there, then the deposits -containing it are older than those 

 of the Cromer River, and man might just as well have left traces of 

 his existence in the later deposits as in the earlier one, provided that 

 he appeared in England as early as he did on the Continent. 



The cave-deposits bear the same witness as the river-deposits, but, 

 being more accessible to investigation, they speak a clearer language. 

 Cave-deposits were, as a rule, laid down by subterranean streams, 

 which, however, as proved by fossils, did not begin to run before the 

 close of Pliocene times. The caves, therefore, are Pleistocene. 

 Dawkins has, it is true, described a cave of Pliocene age found at 

 Doveholes in Derbyshire, and mentioned by him as " the only Pliocene 

 cave yet discovered in Europe '•'. But he himself states that the 

 Pliocene animal remains were 'derived' ("conveyed from a higher 

 level into it [the cavern] by water"). 2 This cave, therefore, is 

 younger than the bones preserved in it, and it too may very well be 

 of Pleistocene age. 



Kent's Cavern, the most thoroughly explored of the English bone- 

 caves, obtained the first material for its oldest deposit — a breccia — ■ 

 from sand carried by a subterranean stream which flowed through it. 

 In this breccia are found the oldest Palaeolithic flint implements, the 

 so-called Pre-Chellean, right down to the floor, and bones of the 

 cave-bear are found only a couple of feet above the floor. 3 For 

 the rest the breccia has up to the present only yielded the bones of 

 the cave-lion and the fox, and these are only of sporadic occurrence. 



Similar conditions are met with in Brixham Cave. 4 The lowest 

 deposit, "the shingle bed," was, it is plain, likewise laid down 

 by a subterranean stream. Certainly it is very poor both in 

 flint implements and bones, but among the latter the bear is 

 represented, and the underground brook cannot have begun to flow 

 much before the entrance of the oldest Palaeolithic mammalian 

 fauna. 



1 Hoist, op. cit., 1911, pp. 30-1, 61-2. 



2 W. Boyd Dawkins, op. cit., 1903, pp. 129 and 125. 



3 Sixteenth and concluding Eeport of the Committee appointed for the 

 purpose of exploring Kent's Cavern, 1881. Bep. Brit. Assoc, for 1880, p. 68. 



4 J. Prestwich, 1874. " Beporfc on the Exploration of Brixham Cave" : 

 Phil. Trans., vol. 163, p. 471. 



