410 S. H. Warren — Falmolitliic Implements, I. of Wight. 



1 



eastwards and then nortli-eastwards through what is now Totland 

 Bay into the old Solent Kiver. At the time the Headon Hill gravel 

 was deposited, at least, it is manifest that this valley could have had 

 no existence, but that the base-level of the Headon Hill gravel 

 at 360 to 370 feet O.D. was then the lowest ground at the foot of 

 the chalk range, flanked by Tertiary beds. The great mass of this 

 gravel would resist the forces of erosion much more powerfully than 

 the soft Eocene sands, and thus gradually become isolated by the 

 cutting away of those strata. If this view be correct, the Paleolithic 

 drift on High Down belongs originally to an early stage in the 

 formation of the Eocene valley, though it has, in part, been re- 

 drifted at various later times. 



I have also found Palceolithic implements in the gravels of the 

 Western Yar. In Pleistocene times this river flowed about a mile 

 to the south of Brightstone and Brook, then over what is now 

 Compton Bay, and through the gap in the Chalk downs at Fresh- 

 water Bay, to join the old Solent Eiver near Yarmouth. The 

 Pleistocene gravels, with their accompanying brickearth, seen along 

 the cliff section from Brightstone Grange Chine to Compton Bay, 

 occur in terraces at from 60 to 120 feet O.D. The highest terrace 

 is called ' Plateau Gravel ' by the Geological Survey, but I cannot 

 agree with thus giving it a separate title, especially as it has little 

 in common with those drift deposits that usually go by that name. 

 I have not been successful in finding any implements along the cliff 

 here, but I think if they were carefully watched as falls take place 

 •from time to time, that implements would very probably be found in 

 them, perhaps most abundantly in the upper terrace. 



On the other side of Freshwater Gate I have found Palasolithic 

 implements in a patch of gravel, not marked on the Survey Map, 

 that caps an isolated knoll at about 95* feet O.D. It is evidently 

 a remnant of a river terrace that has been almost entirely destroyed 

 by denudation. Nearer Freshwater Church there is another knoll 

 which forms the highest ground for some distance round. This is 

 ■also capped by gravel, though not so coloured on the Survey Map. 

 The elevation of this knoll is about 10 or 15*'' feet below the level 

 of the other patch ; but as the thickness of the gravel here appears 

 to be only 4 or 5 feet, whereas the thickness in the other knoll is 

 10 feet or more, the level of the two very closely corresponds, and 

 they are evidently remnants of the same terrace. There are also 

 terraces at lower levels about Freshwater, but I have not at present 

 succeeded in finding any implements on them. 



Both the gravels of the cliffs near Brook and Brightstone, and 

 ■also those of Freshwater, contain occasional pebbles of Paleozoic 

 rocks. These, I think, have most probably been derived from 

 Lower Cretaceous strata. In the gravels on the left bank of the 

 old Solent Eiver about Bournemouth erratics are far more numerous ; 

 and they have doubtless been derived from the west, as maintained 

 by Mr. A. E, Salter.^ In going over the gravels of that district 



1 Proc. Geol. Assoc, vol. xy (1898), p. 277 ; see also R. Godwin -Austen, 

 Quart. Joui-n. Geol. Soc, toI. xiii (1857), p. 45. 



