462 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [June 19, 



the high terrace, for flint implements ; and as a proof that the total 

 absence of human relics did not arise from any neglect in looking 

 for them, I may mention that one of my most experienced men, who, 

 on account of his numerous finds in the high terrace I called my 

 flint-finder, was afterwards employed in Brown's Orchard ; and al- 

 though he laid down with his own hands upwards of three miles of 

 gravel upon roads, and the same inducements were offered him as on 

 the former occasion, he never found in this gravel so much as a single 

 flake or chip which could be ascribed to the hand of man. This cir- 

 cumstance, tallying as it does with the result of my previous exami- 

 nation of the mid terrace, as before mentioned, near Hammersmith, 

 is worthy of record. It would be unsafe to build an hypothesis upon 

 negative evidence of this kind ; but the gravel-excavations for the 

 New Law Courts in the Strand, where the surface is about 40 feet 

 above the Ordnance datum, and which is consequently on the level of 

 the mid terrace, were found by Mr. Price, who examined them care- 

 fully from time to time, to be totally devoid of worked flints. The 

 historical drift-implement of Gray's Inn Lane must have been 

 found between the 60- and 70-feet line, and consequently on the 

 level of the high terrace ; and the flint found by Mr. Evans at 

 Highbury was at a much higher level. It may, I think, be stated 

 as a fact, that no flint of the drift-type in this region has hitherto 

 been found below the 50-feet line, except in the bed of the Thames 

 itself. From the Thames I have obtained one implement of drift- 

 type ; and Mr. Sparrow Simpson is in possession of a remarkably fine 

 specimen, also from the bed of the Thames. 



On the south side of the river my researches have been less com- 

 plete than on the north side ; I, however, examined the gravel-pits 

 of the high terrace at East Sheen. The workmen had already been 

 put on the look-out for implements by previous searchers, but, up to 

 the time I visited the spot, had found nothing. In the high-terrace 

 gravel at Wandsworth and Battersea Rise, after a fruitless search in 

 several gravel-pits, and after carefully walking over some miles of 

 gravel laid upon roads, I at last discovered one implement, together 

 with a flake, lying on a heap of gravel at the junction of Gray-shot 

 Hoad and the Wandsworth Boad upon Battersea Bise. I made many 

 inquiries to ascertain the exact position from which this gravel was 

 obtained ; I was informed by a workman that it came from an open 

 gravel-pit within a few yards of the spot. The surface at this pit 

 was between the 50- and 60-feet line, and it occupies exactly the 

 same position above the strip of London Clay as the implement- 

 bearing gravel at Acton. It is extremely probable that it came from 

 this pit ; but it is certain that it came from some part of Batter- 

 sea Bise ; for the quantity of gravel which is obtained from pits in 

 this neighbourhood makes it extremely improbable that this parti- 

 cular heap should have been imported from elsewhere. Moreover 

 the absence of implements in the gravel of this hill generally, makes 

 it the more probable that it came from the particular pit near which 

 it was found, as this pit had been but little worked ; and it is possible, 

 - therefore, that the heap in question may have been the fii'stfruits of 



