504 ME. F. W. HAEM.EE ON THE [JS"0V. 1907, 



the level of which was being gradually reduced in accordance with 

 the deepening of its overflow-channel. l 



Prof. Kendall speaks of exposures of well- bedded dirty gravel, 

 and of rubble of angular and rounded fragments of local rock, 

 resting against the hillsides in the Cleveland area. 2 Such a 

 description would apply to some of the terrace-deposits of the region 

 here discussed. 



Mr. Fox-Strangways's remarks as to the Yale of Pickering (quoted 

 by Prof. Kendall) 3 may be applied, not inappropriately I think, to 

 the Oxford plain and the gravels mentioned by Mr. Pocock, as well 

 as to those of the Ipsden-Brightwell terrace. He says : — 



' If this latter valley [the Vale of Pickering] was a lake for any length of 

 time there should be some proof of a shore-line, either in the form of gravels or 

 terraces, along its margin. Although these have been mostly swept away by- 

 subsequent denudation, there is still some evidence of their former existence. 

 The most marked terrace at the present time is that on the north side of the 

 valley at Hutton Bushel, the level of which is a little more than 200 feet above 



the sea Below this there are two minor terraces, not so well marked, 



at about the 100- and 140-feet contour, which probably denote periods during 

 which the denudation of the Malton gorge was for a time checked. Besides this 

 there are no distinctly marked terraces, but there is a considerable amount of 

 gravel here and there, all of which is below the 250-feet contour.' 4 



These facts may be fairly compared with the gravel- terrace at 

 Long Hanborough, near the mouth of the Evenlode valley, and 

 those described by Mr. Pocock at a lower level near Eynsham. 

 They seem more probably to represent a delta, an accumulation of 

 material brought down by river-action at or near the point where 

 the current is arrested when entering a body of standing water, 

 than cones of dejection. 



Mr. H, B. Woodward has informed me that there are extensive 

 and level tracts near Horsepath, to the south-west of Oxford, which 

 Mr. Pocock was inclined to regard as largely alluvial. The ground 

 rises to heights of 220 to 250 feet above Ordnance-datum, and is for 

 the most part above present flood-levels. Such facts seem to me to 

 support the view that lacustrine conditions may have formerly 

 obtained in this district. In many places the Oxford plain is 

 remarkably smooth, almost as if it had been artificially levelled. 

 This may have been due to the deposition of alluvium representing 

 a late stage in the history of the suggested lake. 



Prof. Phillips suggested, in 1871, that lacustrine conditions may 

 formerly have obtained in the valley of the Ock, and near Eynsham, 

 Oxford, and Abingdon 5 ; and Mr. A. M. Bell has described a bed of 



1 The question of the age of these gravels is of considerable importance, as 

 Palaeolithic implements and remains of the mammoth have been found in 

 them, see J. Prestvrich, Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. xlviii (1892) p. 313. If 

 they are Glacial, as I suppose, it would support the view that men lived in 

 Britain during the existence of the ice-sheet. 



2 Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. lviii (1902) p. 474. 



3 Leicester Lit. & Phil. Soc. n. s. vol. iii (1894) p. 339. 



4 It should be stated that Prof. Kendall explains the origin of the Hutton- 

 Bushel gravels in another way. His explanation would not be applicable, 

 however, to those of the Oxford plain. 



5 ' Geology of Oxford & the Valley of the Thames ' 1871, p. 462. 



