132 JMPLIMEN1TFEB0US SECTIONS AT WOLVEBCOTE. [May 1 904, 



determination of several species of boreal mosses showed that the 

 plant-bed was of Pleistocene date ; but it did not necessarily prove 

 that the plant- and implement-beds were contemporaneous. 



Mr. P. F. Kendall thought that Prof. Sollas had convincingly 

 demonstrated, either the entire unreliability of the Continental 

 classification, or its inapplicability to the succession in England. 

 Some of the implements could be matched with those from 

 Hoxne, which were of very late Glacial, perhaps the very latest 

 Glacial age. He concurred w T ith the Author in believing that 

 Jand-icehad comedown to the Thames Yalley, and he had suggested 

 this himself some time ago. 



The Author thanked the meeting for the hearing which they had 

 given to his paper, and especially Prof. Sollas for acknowledging 

 the value of his work and correctness of his general conclusions. 

 With other English students he had not neglected the study of the 

 Mousterien, Solutreen, and Magdalenien epochs, but he, like others, 

 had failed to find in English deposits any traces of the same stages 

 of culture. This method, so successful in Southern France and in 

 Austria, had hitherto proved unprofitable in England. A better 

 one for our conditions had been adopted and patiently pursued for 

 twenty-five years by Mr. Clement Reid. His attempt had succeeded 

 in differentiating several important stages of the prolonged epoch, and 

 the ' Origin of the British Flora ' had been to the speaker a lux hi 

 tenebris. He had, however, to acknowledge Prof. Sollas's gentle 

 censure, and to apologize to his audience for broaching on partial 

 evidence such a subject as ice-action in the Thames Valley. Xo one 

 knew better than himself that so large a subject demanded to be 

 treated by corroborative testimony drawn from a wide area. This, 

 from lack of time, he had been unable to do. The main object of 

 his paper was to prove a distinction between two stages of Palaeolithic 

 life; he thought that he had done so by a convincing section, the only 

 thorough geological proof. Of corroborative evidence he had not 

 spoken, but it was so great that he had perhaps only given a definite 

 geological explanation of facts so generally acknowledged that their 

 solution was also generally surmised. He rejoiced to think that a 

 fuller treatment of the greater subject — the glaciation of the Thames 

 Valley — was in most capable hands, and would erelong be dealt with 

 satisfactorilv. 



