S. H. Warren — PalceoUthic Implements, I. of Wight. 411 



I noticed in the Plateau Gravels from Canford Heath to beyond 

 Talbot Village, and also on the isolated St. Catherine's Hill ^ near 

 Cbristchurch, that erratic pebbles are very abundant, though flint 

 forms the bulk of the gravel so far as the larger stones are con- 

 cerned ; but with the coarse grit (pieces of from ^ to ^ inch in 

 diameter) a large proportion of its bulk is composed of those 

 erratics. The same is the case with the gravels already mentioned 

 belonging to the old Solent Eiver that are exposed in the cliflfs from 

 Branksome to Southbourne, and in many pits about Bournemouth, 

 But as soon as one crosses the ridge, capped by Plateau Gravel, 

 into the valley of the Stour, one finds that the bulk of the grit is 

 composed of flint with some quartz ; indeed, I looked a long time 

 before I found a single erratic in the grit, though I had found one 

 or two of larger size. This was surprising to me, as I had previously 

 thought that the lower terrace gravels were formed out of the 

 materials of those at a higher level, merely relaid at a lower level 

 as the excavation of the valley proceeded. But this is evidently 

 not the case in this instance. One sees from the great difference 

 in the composition of the grit that the gravels of Moordown and 

 Winton, in the Stour valley, are quite independent in their origin 

 of those of Canford Heath, from which, one would naturally have 

 imagined them to have been derived. 



About Moordown there is a very well developed terrace at 70 or 

 80 feet above the Eiver Stoui-, in which I have obtained a number of 

 Paleeolithic implements, both pointed and ovate. One is of a rather 

 rare type, with an almost adze-like cutting edge, If inches wide, 

 the whole blade being 6 inches long by 'i\ inches wide. I am 

 not aware that Paleeolithic implements have previously been re- 

 corded from this locality. Indeed, Sir John Evans, in the last 

 edition of his "Ancient Stone Implements of Great Britain" (1897, 

 p. 634), says : " In the basin of the Stour, which joins the Avon 

 at Cbristchurch, but one discovery has been made." This, he 

 proceeds to say, was in gravel dug near Wimborne Minster, but not 

 in situ. In the siravel of Little Down Common I also found a flake, 

 though I visited the pit but once, and then for a short time only ; 

 I have no doubt that a more extended search would be fully 

 rewarded. This gravel also belongs to the valley of the Stour, 

 and the grit is wanting in erratics. 



From the gravels of the Western Yar about Freshwater, 1 have 

 obtained a number of much abraded brown flints, with battered 

 edges, resembling the so-called ' Eolithic ' implements from the 

 chalk downs of Kent. I feel no little hesitation in attributing the 

 majority of these to human agency. Both from Freshwater and 

 elsewhere, I have Eolithic types (whether they be implements or 

 not), the chippings upon which are contemporary with the River 

 Drift series proper, that is, later than the earlier Palaeolithic forms.^ 



1 There is danger in visiting the pits on the summit of this hill, owing to the 

 proximity of the rifle-butts, and there is nothing to warn one. I narrowly escaped 

 being shot here in February last. 



2 I have some in which the chippings are contemporary with Neolithic 

 implements. 



