﻿1861.] 



PRESTWICH FOSSIL FLINT IMPLEMENTS. 



367 



the section at that part of the pit where the implements were 

 found : — 



ft. in. 



a. Earth and gravelly soil 1 



b. Coarse light-coloured gravel, upper part irregularly stained 



brown with apparently infiltrated clay 5 7 



c. "White and yellow sand, with Limneus 1 8 



d. Whitish fine gravel 1 



e. Seam of ochreous sand and grey clay, with Helix and 



Limneus 3 



/. Seam of light-grey sand and gravel 3 



g. Ochreous gravel with an irregular seam of grey sandy 



clay, containing Oyclas and Limneus 1 



The two implements are supposed to have come from the bed g. 



13 6 



The seams are very variable. The gravel is subangular, and is com- 

 posed of fragments of flint, local Oolitic debris, pebbles of quartz and 

 of siliceous sandstones of the New lied Sandstone conglomerates, with 

 fragments of various old rocks. In the lower bed are a considerable 

 number of small blocks of sandstone, oolites, and large flints. The 

 shells are dispersed throughout from a depth of 5 feet to the base. 

 They are mostly in fragments, but occasionally perfect. I have, with 

 the assistance of Mr. Pickering, determined the following species : — 



Cyclas corneus. Bithmia tentaculata. 



Pisidium amnicum. Limneus auricularis. 



pulchellum. pereger. 



Helix hispida. Planorbis carinatus. 

 pulchella. Valvata piscinalis. 



A considerable number of the teeth and bones of the Elej>7iasprimi- 

 genius, Rhinoceros tichorhinus, and of the Horse, Ox, and Deer have 

 been found in this pit, chiefly at or near the bottom of the gravel. Now 

 it is evident that a certain portion of the materials of the gravel are 

 local, but still there is a large foreign element independently of the 

 flints. As the valley drains only an oolitic district, which could not have 

 furnished any such materials, it is evident they must have been derived 

 from the boulder clay, which caps the hills of the district and contains 

 all the required elements. The hills north of Bedford consist of boulder- 

 clay, b, as do also those west of Biddenham ; they both rise to a height 

 of about 100 feet above the river, and are separated by a valley 

 two miles broad. In this valley the gravel forms a wide, nearly level 

 tract, 60 to 80 feet lower than the hills, but still 20 to 40 feet above 

 the level of the present river. We have here therefore, as at 

 Hoxne, another good case of the flint-implement-bearing beds being 

 newer than the boulder-clay ; whilst in general physical characters 

 and in the nature and variety of the organic remains we are strongly 

 reminded of the gravel beds of St. Acheul, near Amiens. 



Surrey. — Twenty-five years ago, Mr. Whitburn, of Guildford, was 

 examining the gravel-pits at Peasemarsh, between that town and 

 Godalming, for fossil bones (of which a considerable number, inclu- 

 ding those of the Elephant, had been found here), when his attention 

 was attracted by a peculiarly shaped flint lying in a bed of sand, 



VOL. XVII. — part i. 2 c 



