FLt)WER DISCOVEKIES OF FLESTT IMPLEMENTS. 453 



stood by reference to the accompanying map (PI. XX.). At about 

 three miles distance from Broomhill and Brandon, on the north, a high 

 tableland, of abont a mile in width, divides the valley of the Little 

 Ouse from that of the Wissey (which flows in the same direction). This 

 hill (which forms the watershed of both rivers) is capped with drift- 

 gravel and siliceous sands closely resembling those seen at Brandons, 

 the quartzite pebbles, however, being somewhat less abundant*. 

 On the south side the river is bounded for some distance by the hills 

 at Brandon and Lakenheath, on which the implements occur ; and 

 about seven miles further south, in the Larke Valley, at Ickling- 

 ham, another well-known deposit of implements has been met with. 

 West of these several localities is seen the great level of the Fens, 

 extending through Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambridgeshire, and Hunting- 

 donshire into Northamptonshire and Lincolnshire, while to the 

 eastward, passing by Santon Downham and Thetford, the Little 

 Ouse is traced back to its source at Lopham Ford; and closely 

 adjoining to the source, and only separated from it by a bank of 

 sand 5 or 6 feet high and 200 yards wide, is found the source of 

 the Waveney, which after running north-east, passing by Hoxne 

 (another locality for flint implements), falls into the sea at Yar- 

 mouth f. There seems to be little doubt that these valleys (of 

 the Ouse and the Waveney) are derived from one continuous 

 valley of submarine erosion, by which Norfolk was formerly cut off 

 from the rest of the kingdom, and constituted an island. 



We have clear evidence that even within the historical period the 

 district to the westward through which the river flows, after leaving 

 Brandon, was at a much lower level than at present, the valley 

 having been filled up with peat, and thus brought to a dead level, or 

 nearly so, extending over many hundred square miles. Polished 

 flint implements of the Neolithic period have been often found lying 

 below the peat or low down in it, as well as bronze celts and spear- 

 heads ; the peat varies in thickness from 1 or 2 feet to 20. or even 

 30 feet, and in it are found querns of pudding-stone and Boman 

 antiquities. In many places in the level of the fens other unmis- 

 takeable proofs have been met with of the comparatively recent 

 origin of these beds. In one place swaths of grass lying just as 

 they were mown were found at the depth of 8 feet, and in other 

 places, at depths varying from 10 to 20 feet, there have been found a 

 smith's forge with his tools and horseshoes, tan-pits, a cart-wheel, 

 and ancient causeways, and the skeletons of sea-fish, and boats or 



* Since tMs paper was read, I have visited this place in company with Mr. 

 Prestwich. He considers this gravel to belong to the Boulder-clay series ; and 

 we certainly saw a capping of clay about a foot thick covering a portion of it. 

 The implement-bearing gravel at Brandon is precisely of the same composition, 

 although the quartzite-pebbles occur in much more compact masses. Mr. 

 Prestwich, however, considers it to be a reconstructed gravel, and of subsequent 

 date to that in the watershed. 



t In the map published lately by the Society, Lopham Ford is stated to be 

 only 15 feet above high- water mark at Lynn ; but this is probably a mistake : the 

 river at Brandon is found to be 15 feet above high- water mark, and the source 

 at Lopham Ford is probably about eight feet higher. 



