Vol. 60.] IMPLEMEXTIFEROUS SECTIONS AT WOLVERCOTE. 125 



facts : — (1) The Glacial flora had not entirely withdrawn. It is 

 still marked by one, if not by two species. (2) The land was 

 more elevated than it is now ; the considerable percentage of moun- 

 tainous species seems to call for this conclusion, which on other 

 grounds is also demanded. (3) The land appears to have been very 

 wet, almost waterlogged. A high rainfall is also called for by 

 many phenomena of Pleistocene time, and would follow from the 

 previous conclusion. If the Cotteswold water-parting were from 

 400 to 600 feet higher than it now is, the rainfall of the Thames 

 Valley would undoubtedly be greater than the channels can properly 

 deal with. (4) From the number of now-existing species I infer a 

 warmth of climate fully equal to that of the present day. 



A collection of elytra and other parts of beetles was also secured, 

 numbering probably 30 species ; these have not, as yet, been 

 determined. 



In the lacustrine or still-water portion no fossil has been found. 

 Fragments of shells are here and there visible, but no fragment of 

 wood or bone, or determinable plant. 



The deposit as a whole is a typical river-valley deposit. 

 Implements, mammalia, mollusca, flora, all are characteristic of 

 such a formation as Sir John Evans describes in the 2nd edition 

 (1897) of his well-known work on the ' Ancient Stone-Implements 

 of Great Britain ' (pp. 662, 679, 686) :— 



1 1 have made no scruple in treating them hitherto as being river-drift 



The character of the beds, consisting as they do, of gravel, sand, and fine silt, 

 brickearth or lcess, and their manner of deposition, are also absolutely in 



accordance with the river-hypothesis The discoveries in the gravels 



capping the North Downs, and those made near Ightham and Limpsfield in 

 the transverse valley at the foot of the Downs, seem at first sight difficult to 

 reconcile with any river-theory. But, assuming that the beds capping the hills 

 were at one time continuous with others in the Wealden area, and that the 

 transverse valley was produced by denudation at a later date, the difficulties 

 disappear.' 



His general theory is, that practically all implementiferous de- 

 posits are of a similar character and of fluviatile origin. 



It appears to me, however, that the other part of this section 

 affords convincing evidence of an earlier stage of Palaeolithic life, 

 not preserved in a river-gravel. The previous surface already men- 

 tioned (p. 120), which has been wasted away where the river-gravel 

 lies, is instructive. Before describing the section, I should like to 

 quote the words of the late Prof. A. H. Green. On my going with 

 him to the spot, after I had found implements beneath the peat-bed 

 above described, he said : — 



' I have never paid particular attention to Palaeolithic gravels for their relation 

 to human remains, but I have often visited this section for another purpose. 

 You observe the remains of au old surface which has been hollowed out bv a 

 river. You see hollows in the clay filled by pebbles of the Northern Drift. 

 All these pebbles you will find re-arranged in the bottom of the river-bed, and 

 I have often brought my pupils here to show them how a newer bed is formed 

 by the destruction and re-arrangement of an older deposit. . . . You have not, 

 I imagine, found implements in the upper gravel or old surface ? ' 



