Notices of Memoirs — C. Reid — Pakeolithic Deposits, Hitchin. 229 



the mud-line. The uniform physical conditions hei'e refeiTed to 

 might be explained by adopting the views of Blandet^ as to the 

 greater size and nebulous character of the sun in the earlier ages of 

 the earth's hiatovy.— Nature, March 25, 1897. 



II. — The Paleolithic Deposits at Hitohin and their Eelation 

 TO the Glacial Epoch,^ By Clement Keid, F.L.S., F.G.S., 

 of the Geological Survey of the United Kingdom. 



CERTAIN excavations and borings at Hoxne, undertaken in the 

 year 1896 at the cost of the British Association and of the 

 lioyal Society, threw much light on the relation of Palgeolithic man 

 to the Glacial Epoch.^ It was thought advisable therefore to 

 examine the similar deposits at Hitchin, to ascertain to what extent 

 tlie conclusions already arrived at were supported by exploration 

 at a fresh locality ; and the cost of these investigations was defrayed 

 by the Council of the Royal Society. 



Palaeolithic implements have long been known from Hitchin, 

 and their position in and at the base of a stony brickearth was well 

 ascertained. It was also known that this brickearth rested on loam 

 and shell marl, with fresh-water mollusca and mammalian remains. 

 All this had been made perfectly clear, principally by the researches 

 of Prestwich, Sir John Evans, Mr. W. Ransom, and Mr. William 

 Hill. The most important of the doubtful points were the relations 

 of these ancient alluvia to the widespread sheet of Chalky Boulder- 

 clay and to the valleys of the existing streams. 



A preliminary examination of the neighbourhood of Hitchin 

 convinced the author that the PalEeolithic and ancient alluvial 

 deposits of Hitchin occupied a small irregular valley, which had 

 become silted up and almost obliterated. Attention was therefore 

 mainly devoted to the search for Boulder-clay beneath the Palaeolithic 

 loams, and to the sinking of a trial-pit and bore at the point where 

 the buried valley appeared to be deepest. 



This exploration tended to show that the story told by the old 

 valley at Hoxne was repeated at Hitchin. Indeed, the succession of 

 events at the two localities was so similar as to leave scarcely 

 a doubt that there was an equivalent set of strata, although 

 unfortunately the series was less perfect, and the gaps discovered 

 at Hoxne are still unbridged by any records yet found at Hitchin. 

 Hitchin yields strong corroborative evidence in favour of the con- 

 clusions arrived at in the Hoxne Report, and adds somewhat to our 

 knowledge of the temperate flora of the ancient alluvial strata lying 

 between the Chalky Boulder-clay and the Palceolithic brickearth. 



Hitchin lies in the valley cut by the Iliz, a small stream which 

 rises within a mile of the town. Chalk is seen in the valleys, and 

 rises irregularly thi'ough the thick sheet of drift that masks most 

 of the area. The greater part of this drift consists of coarse 



' Bull. Soc. geol. France, ser. 2, t. xxv, p. 777, 1868. 



2 Abridged from the Proc. Royal Society, vol. Ixi, pp. 40-49, March, 1897. 



3 Rep. Brit. Assoc. 1896, p. 400. 



