﻿Vol. 66.] ANNIVEESAEY ADDEESS OF THE PEESIBENT. 



lvii 



Palaeolithic Man. — When Sir John Evans delivered his 

 address on this subject he recognized only two stages in the palaeo- 

 lithic series, represented by cave man and river-drift man ; as a 

 result of investigations in France, we are now able to distinguish 

 six, the Chellean, Acheulean, Mousterian, Aurignacian, Solutrian r 

 and Magdalenian, some of these being capable of further division 

 into two or more substages. They are enumerated above in the 

 order of their age, the Chellean being the oldest. 



All observers are agreed that the Chellean corresponds with an 

 interglacial episode, the fauna associated with it, particularly 

 Elephas antiquus and Rhinoceros merlcii, pointing to a warm 

 climate ; but opinions differ as to which interglacial episode this 

 may be : Prof. Boule pronounces for the last, Prof. Penck for the 

 last but one. In our own country Acheulean implements are 

 certainly younger than the Chalky Boulder Clay : the investi- 

 gations made at Hoxne by Mr. Clement Eeid, on behalf of a 

 Committee appointed by the British Association, leave no room 

 for doubt on this point ; but it is not so certain that the Chalky 

 Boulder Clay represents the last of the glacial episodes in our 

 islands. In a paper read before this Society in 1904, Mr. Mont- 

 gomery Bell x called attention to contorted gravels which occur at 

 Wolvercote, a little north of Oxford, and 40 feet above the present 

 level of the Thames, which runs close by. They are clearly 

 exposed in a brick-pit, where they are seen to overlie the Oxford 

 Clay in part, and in part some lacustrine beds of Pleistocene age 

 (figs. 1 & 2). The gravels are folded into both of the underlying 



Fig.l. — Diagrammatic section showing gravel (G) of the ^.0-foot terrace 

 folded into the underlying Oxford Clay (Ox. Cl.) and lacustrine 

 beds (L.) at Wolvercote brick-pit, Oxford. 



a 



fffflF 



1 1 111 III 



deposits ; and at one spot both the Oxford Clay and the gravel are 

 violently overthrust on to the lacustrine beds. Some very powerful 

 superficial agent has evidently been at work, and we are led to 

 suspect the action of land-ice. The gravel has yielded a scratched 

 quartzite-pebble and a large subangular block of igneous rock 



1 ' Implementiferous Sections at Wolveicote (Oxfordshire)' Quart. Journ. 

 Geol. Soc. vol. lx (1904) p. 120. 



VOL. lxvi. e 



