DRIFT-STAGES OF THE DARENT VALLEY. 135 



antiquity of tlie plateau-specimens is, I think, conclusive. I may 

 further remark that at Ash the Neolithic Hints, which are found on 

 the same surface with the Palaiolithic flints, are in no wise ditt'crent 

 from the ordinary Neoliths found elsewhere on the Chalk and other 

 surfaces. Thej' are merely weathered white, have no colour-staining, 

 and are readily distinguishable at first sight from the older forms. 



Another feature to notice in connexion with these specimens is 

 the amount of rolling and rubbing they have undergone. The 

 ihitter surfaces are sometimes covered with scratches, which occa- 

 sionally bear a close resemblance to glacial striae (PI. VIII. , fig. 7 ; 

 see explanation of Plate) ; but I have seen none, unless it be the 

 one figured, sufficiently regular to be ascribed with certainty to that 

 cause, though the scratches are evidently of old date. 



Occasionally a derived specimen of the older type is to be found 

 in the newer drifts. Though more worn, they retain their dark- 

 brown colour, and are easily distinguishable from the group with 

 which they have become associated. I possess one of the type of 

 fig. C (PI. YIII.), found by Mr. E. Lewis at Limpsfield ; Mr. Crawshay 

 has two similar specimens from Snag Lane ; and Mr. P. Harrison 

 a rude scraper from West Yaldham, and another specimen from 

 Crowdlesham. Other places might be named, but these will suffice 

 and explain the presence of these ruder implements. 



I had often met with stained and worn flints on the Sussex 

 and Hampshire hills, similar in character to those of the Southern 

 Drift on our own Kentish hills, but had not hitherto seen any 

 flint implements of the old Ash type. Hecently, however, Mr. 

 Harrison has placed in my hands four such specimens, found by 

 his friend Mr. 11. Hilton, of East Dean, on the Chalk ridge * at 

 Friston, near Eastbourne, and at the height of about 390 feet above 

 sea-level, and of 200 feet above the level of the adjacent valley. 

 Three of them are natural fragments of flint, slightly worked 

 at the edges, one being similar to fig. 3 (PI. YIII.). Another 

 is a better finished pointed form, worked on both sides, and very 

 much worn. They are of the usual dark-brown colour, and show 

 much wear, and on one there are the same traces of ferruginous 

 incrustation as that which is common on the implements found at 

 Ash. This discovery tends to confirm a suggestion I made in a 

 former paper f when speaking of the Southern Drift of the Thames 

 Yalley, that it was probable that on the southern slopes (in Sussex 

 and Hampshire) of the Wealden highlands a similar drift was in 

 course of formation at the same time, and that it was then subject 

 to conditions analogous to those experienced by its equivalent in the 

 London Pasin. 



§ 3. The Initial Stages of the Darext Yalley. 



I have before shown that in early Pliocene times a plain of marine 

 denudation stretched across from the Chalk escarpment to the 

 AVealden area, passing over the present Yale of Holmesdale, and that 



* In the valley at East Dean Mr. Hilton had previously found Palaejlitbic 

 in.plenient.M of the ordinary river-valley type. 



1 Quart. Jouni. Geol. Soc. vol. xlvi.'(lS\.K)) p. 176. 



