458 lEOCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETT. 



dinavia,' when speaking of the antiquities referable to the Palaeoli- 

 thic age, says " that they are usually found in beds of gravel and ]oess, 

 extending along our valleys, and reaching to a height of 200 feet 

 above the present water-level ;" and he adds, " that these beds were 

 deposited by the existing rivers, which then ran in the same direc- 

 tion as at present, and drained the same areas." 



As long as it was believed that the implement-bearing gravels 

 were never found except on or very near to the banks of rivers, it 

 was reasonable to attribute to those rivers the transport of the 

 gravel in which they were imbedded ; but from more recent obser- 

 vations, both in England and France, it seems evident that the im- 

 plement-bearing gravels, as well as others of the same character, 

 which are not yet known to contain implements, do occur in localities 

 so far removed from existing rivers, and, when found near rivers, at 

 such elevations as almost to preclude the belief that those rivers, 

 however swollen by excessive rainfall or melting snow, or otherwise, 

 could have at all affected their condition. 



Thus, for instance, as we see at Brandon, the implement-deposit 

 occurs at an elevation of from 80 to 90 feet above that at Broomhill 

 (which is two miles higher up the stream), and about the same above 

 Shrub Hill, which is several miles lower down. Yet, notwithstand- 

 ing this great difference in the levels, we have strong, if not un- 

 mistakeable indications, derived in some measure from the imple- 

 ments themselves, that all these deposits were (geologically) con- 

 temporaneous. The implements in each are substantially of the 

 same age and character ; the matrioo of red gravel, in which they 

 rest, is of the same composition ; the beds rest directly upon the 

 eroded surface of the chaJk or the gault, and are more or less over- 

 lain by sands of the same description. But it is incredible that 

 such deposits (if of the same age), should owe their origin to one 

 and the same river ; for if so, in order to reach the higher level, it 

 must have been swollen to the height of 100 feet above the level at 

 Broomhill and Shrub, and extended three miles to the south. This 

 would require a volume of water of dimensions and power several 

 thousand fold greater than those of the present river ; and to supply 

 such a stream, the basin from which the river is fed (occupying as 

 it does an area of not more than 300 square miles) is altogether in- 

 sufficient ; nor, indeed, would the present contour of the country 

 allow such a river to flow in that direction. 



JN^or would the difficulty be removed or lessened if we were to dis- 

 regard those proofs of contemporaneity to which I have adverted, 

 and to assume that these deposits were separated from each other 

 by an interval of time sufficient to allow of the excavation of the 

 existing river-valley to the depth of the 80 or 90 feet which now 

 divide it from the Brandon bed. We have no reason whatever 

 to believe that, in these districts, the relative levels of the sur- 

 face have undergone any material change during the Quaternary 

 period * ; and, if not, in order to account for the Brandon and 

 Lakenheath deposits, we must suppose that this river once flowed at 

 * Phil. Trans. 1864, pp. 286-290. 



