54 ARBOR LOW EXCAVATIONS IN 19OI AND 1902. 



(2-13 m.) lower than the general level of the ground imme- 

 diately adjacent to the central stones, as shown by the contours 

 in the plan. Here again nothing was discovered, with the 

 exception of a few very small unidentifiable fragments of animal 

 remains too small for identification and therefore not pre- 

 served. The average depth of the cutting below the surface 

 of the silting was 4-3 feet (1-31 m.), and the maximum depth 

 5-8 feet (1-79 m.) in the north-west of the section. A block 

 of limestone rises to a height of only 7 inches (18 cm.) below 

 the surface of the silting. On the east and north-east the 

 median block of limestone which ran across the section was 

 divided from the limestone side of the ditch on the east by 

 a vein of fine clay, yellowish-brown on the top and white below, 

 which occurred at an average depth of 4 feet (1-22 m.) from 

 the surface of the silting ; the surface mould reached a depth 

 of 2 feet (61 cm.), below which was the usual stiff clayey- 

 mould thickly mixed with small pieces of chert ; at the bottom 

 the proportion of clay to mould increased, and the silting 

 became more stiff and moist ; in fact at the bottom it had 

 to be cut out in solid lumps with a small spade, the chances 

 of finding relics consequently being very remote. 



Section 4 was the deepest portion of the ditch excavated, 

 the maximum depth from the surface being 6-7 feet (2-04 m.). 

 The bottom presented a very uneven surface ; in fact, no 

 attempt whatever appeared to have been made to obtain even 

 a reasonably level track along the bottom of the fosse in the 

 parts re-excavated. The same remark applies to the bottoms 

 of all the other sections, with the exception, perhaps, of the 

 shallow cuttings, Sections 3 and 5 on the west. The committee 

 particularly desired that I should make observations on this 

 point. The late Mr. S. Jackson recently found a flooring of 

 poles at the bottom of a Bronze Age ditch at Fairsnape Farm, 

 Bleasdale, near Garstang.* The bottom of a ditch cut in the 

 chalk of a Bronze Age tumulus dug in 1898 at Whatcombe, near 



* See Professor Boyd Dawkins's paper on the subject, Transactions of the 

 Lancashire and Cheshire Antiquarian Society, xviii., 1 14-124. 



