VALLEY-GEAVELS ABOUT EEADING. 591 



exhibits a bedded gravel, with a few thin layers of clay. Mr. L. 

 Treacher, of Twyford, iuforms me that he has here obtained two 

 flint implements somewhat abraded. He obseryed on one occasion 

 a lump of mottled clay, about 4 feet in its longest diameter, em- 

 bedded in the gravel. 



8. Buscomhe, Twyford. 



Continuing in a north-easterly direction by the road from Read- 

 ing, and crossing the Loddon at Twyford, a higher and lower ter- 

 race of gravel are met with. The former is seen at the Ruscombe 

 brick- works, where it overlies the Woolwich-and-Eeading beds at 

 an elevation of 167 feet above sea-level, and 60 feet above the sur- 

 faces of the Loddon and Thames. Owing doubtless to denudation, 

 it is a thin deposit, being in places only 2 or 3 feet thick ; but it 

 fills up hollows of considerable size in the underlying sands or clay. 



The brickyard itself affords a fine section of the variable Wool- 

 wich-and-Eeading series, apparently with a JN'.E.-S.W. fault. 



I was led to examine the gravel here by finding a flint implement 

 in the village, where some road-material had been laid down ; and 

 from time to time I have obtained a few specimens from the gravel 

 thrown out. Others have been obtained by Mr. Treacher, who re- 

 sides close by. Some of these are stated by the workmen to have 

 been obtained from the clay itself, at some slight distance from the 

 gravel. There is no real improbability in this, for the gravel enters 

 the clay, as stated above, and its heavier materials would have a 

 tendency to sink the farthest in the clay. Some of the implements 

 found thus are quite sharp and unworn. 



The implements found here are various in character and do not 

 belong to any one type ; but pointed tools are well represented. 

 Some of the implements are buff in colour, others nearly black. 



Although this would seem at first sight to be a gravel of the 

 Loddon, which flows past the village, it may perhaps be related 

 rather to the Thames, which is at no great distance, and towards 

 which the ground slopes. At Hurst, further up the Loddon-valley, 

 the gravel is at a lower level and is of a different character, as it 

 contains many fragments of chert, and quartzites appear to be 

 absent. 



§ 4. General Consideeations. 



With so few data within a limited area, it would be rash to make 

 large generalizations. It may be well, however, to consider whether 

 any, and what, significance attaches to the different levels at which 

 gravel containing palaeolithic implements occurs. The highest 

 gravels of the valley, those, namely, which lie between 235 feet 

 and 269 feet above sea-level, do not contain, as far as my observa- 

 tion has extended, any traces of Man, or indeed any contempora- 

 neous organic remains. In the neighbourhood of Caversham, 

 gravels, only 20 feet higher than that at Toots Parra, appear to have 

 been accumulated under similar conditions, yet they have not yielded 

 any implements. 



Assuming the highest gravels of the valley to be the oldest, the 



