1U0 MR. AND MRS. REID ON A PROBABLE [Feb. I904, 



8. On a probable Paleolithic Floor at Prah Sands (Cornwall). 

 By Clement Reid, Esq., F.R.S., F.L.S., F.G.S., and Eleanor 

 M. Reid, B.Sc. (Read January 6th, 1904.) 



About 7 miles east of Penzance a shallow bay lies between a rocky 

 headland of slate and elvan on the one side, and the Godolphin 

 granite on the other. Into this bay sand, principally shell-sand, 

 has drifted, so as to show at low tide a mile or so of sandy fore- 

 shore, behind which occur low cliffs and sand-dunes. This tract 

 is known as Prah Sands. In its leading characteristics it is a 

 typical Cornish bay, dating from the period of the raised beach, but 

 subsequently rendered less important, and partly obliterated, by 

 changes of sea-level and the accumulation of drift. 



The drift in the low cliff at Prah was described in 1879 by 

 Mr. W. A. E. Ussher 1 ; but nothing exceptional seems to have been 

 visible at that date, nor was anything unusual observed during two 

 visits made by one of us in 1901. The ordinary succession of 

 angular ' head,'* on raised beach, resting upon a wave-worn rocky 

 platform, was all that was noticed. 



During the severe gales of 1902 and 1903 the sea washed away 

 much of the talus and sand which masked the foot of the cliff 

 between Sydney Cove and Hoe Point, and also removed so much of 

 the beach as to lay bare numerous patches of the rocky floor below. 

 The sections thus exposed are of such great interest as to justify a 

 detailed description, for they yield what we believe to be the first 

 evidence of Palaeolithic man yet found in Cornwall. 



The section lies between Sydney Cove (w T here the road comes 

 down to the beach) and the well-known ' Prah Elvan,' less than 

 300 yards away, and close to the western horn of the bay. The 

 general relation of the deposits will be readily understood from the 

 accompanying section (fig. 1, p. 108). 



An uneven, wave-worn, rocky platform rises to about 15 feet 

 above high- water on the south-western side of the elvan. Beyond 

 and behind it is a much-degraded ancient sea- cliff, with traces 

 of caves, now well above the reach of the sea. This buried cliff 

 trends inland, and then strikes eastward at a distance of about 

 200 yards from the present coast. On the rocky platform and 

 banked against the cliff rest patches of shingly beach (mainly of 

 elvan and killas), with big boulders and much sand, the whole 

 deposit seldom reaching 10 feet in thickness ; the beach-material 

 has been entirely decalcified, and is now cemented by iron into a 

 solid mass. About 60 feet of angular rubble or ' head,' loamy at 

 the bottom and full of large blocks of elvan throughout, at this 

 point rests upon the raised beach, forming the modern sea-cliff. 



On the east side of the elvan-dyke the rocky platform gradually 



! 'The Post-Tertiary Geology of Cornwall' 1879, 8 vo, Hertford (privately 

 printed) pp. 18, 19. 



