8. H. Warren — PalceoUthic Implements, I. of Wight. 409 



As already mentioned, the iraplementiferous clay drift extends down 

 from the chalk downs on to this ridge, and I have found a number 

 of rude, ochreous, and much abraded Pala3olithic implements on 

 a ploughed field here. 



There can be little doubt that the gap in the chalk downs with 

 its Paleeolithic drift, the ridge across the Eocene valley, and the 

 large mass of gravel capping Headon Hill, are closely connected 

 with each other in their origin. The Headon Hill gravel is 

 stratified in irregular, confused masses ; it is composed of flint 

 nodules, often more or less battered and rolled on their projecting 

 branches, fractured fragments of flint that are practically unabraded, 

 together with a certain number of flint pebbles derived from the 

 Tertiary beds, but no debris from strata below the chalk nor any 

 foreign erratics. Headon Hill is now quite isolated, with the 

 exception of the ridge at about 270*''' feet O.D. that connects it with 

 the chalk downs, so that the gravel capping it is evidently a very 

 early drift, possibly Pliocene, but certainly long anterior to the 

 PalEeolithic drift on High Down. It appears to me to be 

 a terrestrial and not a marine deposit ; and to have been swept 

 down along the line of the col, if I may so term it, that now forms 

 the gap between East and West High Down, at a time when the 

 chalk range was several hundred feet higher than it is now. 



It seems to me that this is the simple and natural explanation of 

 the Headon Hill gravel ; but I find a greater difficulty in explaining 

 the Palteolithic drift on the downs. I at first thought that it belonged 

 to a stream flowing northward into the old Solent Kiver from land to 

 the south that had since been destroyed by the sea. But there are 

 various objections to this view. Firstly, the surface of the downs 

 slopes southward from the drift area at about 365''° feet O.D. down to 

 about 290°-''^ feet O.D., where it is cut off by the present sea-cliff; and 

 has apparently continued to slope downwards to a still lower level 

 before the sea had encroached to its present position. So that from 

 the contours of the downs the difiiculty of a stream flowing from the 

 south is quite as great as that of one flowing from the north (or 

 north-west), and from other considerations far greater. Secondly, 

 the very abundant remains of Tertiary strata, in the shape of flint 

 pebbles and ironstone, that are found in the drift, would necessitate 

 the supposition of Tertiary outliers to the south, if it had come from 

 that direction, which a glance at the geological structure of the 

 district shows one to be an unjustifiable assumption ; without going 

 back to a time long anterior to the Palseolithio drift. Supposing the 

 drift to have come from the north or north-west, the difficulty is 

 only one of some 90'- feet, that is, the difference between the ridge 

 of the Eocene valley and the level of the drift. And as the ridge 

 is being cut back on both sides by the streams flowing westwards 

 into Alum Bay and north-eastwards into Totland Bay, t!ie difficulty 

 is not a great one. Further, it appears to me that not only Alum 

 Bay Chine itself, but the whole valley from the ridge westwards, 

 which is only f uiile long, is comparatively modern ; that it was 

 formerly occupied by Tertiary beds, and that the drainage flowed 



