FLOWER DISCOVERIES OF FLIJS'T IMPLEMENTS. 459 



a height at least 100 feet above the present stream, and afterwards 

 altered its course, and flowed several miles to the north. But this 

 could never have been the case : for, just as at Moulin Quignon and 

 Saint Acheul the gravel-beds described by Mr. Prestwich are not 

 commanded by any higher grounds, and are out of reach of all 

 running water, and of any possible interference from agents in pre- 

 sent action, so here they are found at an elevation of at least 80 feet 

 above the source of the river, which is not more than twenty miles 

 distant, and there is no high land in the neighbourhood from which 

 a river capable of leaving such a deposit could possibly have been 

 supplied. It is equally clear that if the water had been supplied, 

 it never could have reached to the summit of the hills. These, as I 

 have shown, immediately overlook or overhang the great level of the 

 fens, which was formerly a considerable valley, much of it having 

 been filled up by peat within a period comparatively recent. Before 

 the river could have attained to a height sufficient to submerge the 

 hills and cover them with its spoils, it must have fallen into the low 

 grounds on either side, and, filhng up the valley, have found its way 

 to the sea, or, if not, it would have formed an inland lake ; in either 

 case the transporting power of the water would have been lost long 

 before it reached the required level. 



In confirmation of the views here stated, I may notice that flint- 

 implement- bearing gravels have lately been observed in several other 

 localities, on table-lands and hills far removed from any existing 

 river, and destitute also of the slightest trace of any ancient river. 



AttheReculvers they are obtained from a small patch of flint-gravel 

 on a cliff overhanging the sea, and 80 feet above it ; while at Hill 

 Head, in Hampshire, and at Bournemouth, Dorset, they have been 

 found in similar situations and at greater elevations. 



A still more remarkable instance has been described by Mr. Bruce 

 Foote as occurring near Madras*. The implements here are made 

 from pebbles of quartzite, and in form and workmanship are closely 

 allied to the English and Erench types. They are found in a 

 red ferruginous clay, known as laterite, which forms a belt eight 

 or ten miles in width, running parallel with the coast-line for 

 the distance of 300 miles. These beds are cut through at inter- 

 vals, and to great depths, by the rivers of the country running at 

 right angles to the coast-line, and falling into the Bay of Bengal. 

 The implements are never found in the river-channels, except where 

 it is clearly seen that they have been derived from the laterite cliffs. 

 They occur at the height of 500, 1000, and even 1400 feet above 

 tho sea-level, and at this height are associated with enormously 

 large boulder- gravels of quartzite capping the watersheds of the 

 rivers. Like several Erench and English deposits, these beds rest 

 upon the Cretaceous and Postcretaceous beds ; like them they are 

 entirely destitute of marine or freshwater fossils ; and, hke them also, 

 they are frequently far distant from any river or river-channel f. 



* Quart. Jouru. Geol, Soc. vol. xxiv. p. 484. 



t Since this paper was prepared, Mr. John Evans has shown me three well- 

 shaped flint implements lately found near Southampton, one at the depth of five 

 VOL. XXV. PART I. 2 I 



