Vol. 60.] IMPLEMENTIFEROUS SECTIONS AT WOEVERCOTE. L2o 



named the • older surface ' is not pitted in this manner, so I attri- 

 bute the phenomenon to a form of river- action, which I am unable 

 to explain. 



The Associated Fossils. 



The gravel-bed has proved richly implementiferous. The imple- 

 ments are formed of flint taken freshly from the Chalk, or of 

 quartzite-pebbles of the Northern Drift, and they are remarkable 

 for their size, beauty, and freshness. As usual, they have a facies 

 of their own ; the oval type is rare, and the pointed examples are 

 very frequently flat or nearly so on one side, belonging to what Sir 

 John Evans has named the ' shoe-shaped ' type. 



Many of the usual mammalian remains are also found : Elephas 

 primigenius, Equus cabaUus, Bos prvmigemtis^ Cervus elapkus, are 

 all of frequent occurrence, and Hangifer tarandus has been once 

 obtained. For smaller mammals I have searched, but unsuccess- 

 fully. Xeighbouring gravels at a lower level, but probably of 

 similar age, have yielded examples of Rhinoceros. Hippopotam<<*. 

 and Fells leo. var. spelcea. 



In the sand mixed with the gravel were found a number of 

 fluviatile shells, of which eleven species were identified by the late 

 Prof. A. H. Green and his assistant. They did not include the 

 distinctive Corbiculei fluminalis, which does, however, occur at 

 several places in the neighbouring gravel about half a mile distant. 



The layer of peat has also disclosed some of its treasures. It 

 cannot be separated as to age from the gravel beneath it, for it 

 contains the fragments which floated on the water of which the 

 gravel formed the bottom. The late Prof. Green associated it with 

 the implementiferous gravel, with which it was conformable in 

 deposition and in the shells contained in both. It was also con- 

 formable to the water-formed layers above ; all three (gravel, peat, 

 mud) formed portions of a single deposit, clearly marked off by the 

 warp above from the Xeolithic layer of the surface. It is necessary 

 to say this, because Mr. Clement Reid 1 regards the deposit as 'of 

 uncertain age." 



AVhile disagreeing with him on this point, I am sincerely grateful 

 for his courtesy in identifying the flowering-plants found in the 

 bed. They are thirty in number, and include four species of Ranun- 

 culus, three of Potamogeton, three of Car ex, two of Scirjms, also 

 Zannichellia, Ajnga, Lycopus. Heracliv.m. Thalictrum Jiavum. a 

 Rvmex. Hippuris, and Betula. This list contains nothing distinctive, 

 nothing characteristicallv northern or characteristicallv southern, 

 but it harmonizes very well with the flora obtained by Mr. Peid 

 from deposits which he names Intcrglacial. From the animals 

 with which they are found, the natural inference is that the plants 

 belong to that great section of our flora which entered our island — 

 then a portion of the Continent — from Eastern Europe and Western 

 Asia, coming at the close of a great glaciation to cover with verdure 

 the lands which the ice-cap had left bleak and barren. 



1 ■ The Origin of the British Flora ' 1899, p. 8."). 



