OcoIor/fCdl Society. 5G5 



Fobrunry 28th, 1023.— Prof. A. C. Seward, Se.D., F.li.S., President, 



and at'terwurds Prof. W. W. Watts, Sc.D., F.K.S., Vice-President, 



in the Cliair. 



The following communicabions were read : — 



1. ' The Late Glacial Stage o£ the Lea Valley (Third Kcport).' 

 By Samuel Hazzledine Warren, F.G.S. 



Since the publication of the previous papers on the subject, one 

 new section of the same series of deposits has been found. This 

 was in a different situation from the others, as it occurred at the 

 level of, and in the area occupied b}^ the Middle or Ta])low Terrace, 

 whereas all the other sections were in the Low Terrace. It con- 

 sisted of a bed of seed-bearing clay, in the middle of an old gravel- 

 pit, partly built over, and consequently its precise stratigraphical 

 relations to the Taplow gravel were not discoverable. The Taplow 

 deposits yield a fairly temperate fauna and ilora, and it is therefore 

 concluded that the Arctic deposit cannot be of Taplow date. The 

 site is close to the head of a small streamlet, and it is assumed, 

 although it cannot be proved, that the Arctic plant-bed is of Low- 

 Terrace or Ponders-End date, and that it represents the silting of 

 a stream which llowed across the Taplow Terrace. 



The paper is accompanied by a report on the Arctic flora by 

 Mrs. E. M. Reid & Miss M. E. J. Chandler, in which some -IS species 

 of flowering plants are recorded, and the conclusion is reached that 

 there is nothing to distinguish the flora from that of the previously- 

 described localities of the Lea Valley. 



2. ' The Elephas-antiquus Bed of Clacton-on-Sea (Essex), and 

 its Flora and Fauna.' By Samuel Hazzledine Warren, F.G.S. 



The paper describes detailed work on the flora and fauna of the 

 well-known Elephas-antiquus Bed of Clacton-on-Sea. The deposit 

 fills a deep, narrow, steep-sided river-channel which apj^arently had 

 only a very short course, and flowed into the Thames or one of its 

 tributaries when that river occu})ied the deep channel now sub- 

 merged off the coast of Essex. The small Clacton channel was 

 cut during this period of rejuvenescence in the Taplow- Terrace 

 stage of the Thames Valley, and its silting-up ma}^ have been due 

 to the first setting-in of the submergence which culminated in the 

 estuarine sands that overlie the Elephant-Bed and occupy the 

 upper part of the cliff-section. 



The Clacton bed yields evidence of an abundant flint-industry 

 which is one of the best-known representatives of the Mesviuian 

 series. This is of Late Chellean or Early Acheulean date, although 

 it shows no cultural connexion with those industries, but it may 

 very well be the precursor of Mousterian. 



The deposit is also rich in mammalian remains, and the commonest 

 species are ElepJtas anfiquus, Bhinoceros mefjarhinus^ llli. licuii- 

 tocclius, Bos priiiiif/enius, and Ccrvus hroicni. 



