﻿40 the eev. e. c. spicee osr [Feb. 1905, 



the surface, and slopes towards the centre of the pit. In the fore- 

 ground is seen what the workmen call the ' rock,' forming a 

 containing-wall for the clay in which the sarsens are embedded. 

 There is no gradation from the ' rock ' to the fine clay, and the 

 line of demarcation is clear and hard, the large unworn flints in 

 the '- rock ' never protruding into the sarsen-clay, which is free from 

 the admixture of any kind of pebble, It cuts as clean as a cheese. 

 The large flints in the ' rock ' are pressed back into it and form a 

 hard, smooth, limiting surface. When the workmen reach the 

 ' rock ' they know that profitable operations are over in that direc- 

 tion, and follow the ' head ' of clay elsewhere. This ' head ' of clay 

 with sarsens sometimes reaches a depth of 50 feet from the surface, 

 as the present pit is expected to do. 



At a depth of 30 feet a large block estimated to weigh 50 tons is 

 now being quarried for use in building operations at Windsor Castle. 

 This block is the usual white saccharoidal sandstone with a siliceous 

 cement, and shows no structure except on the weathered edges. 

 In the centre of the pit, another large stone is known to lie under 

 the clay, some 40 feet from the surface. There is a horizontal 

 band of smaller sarsens, measuring 1| to 2 feet across, extending 

 athwart the pit above the large blocks. Some 6 feet above them a 

 short band of smaller sarsens, curiously blackened, lies about 3 feet 

 from the surface, looking like remnants of old workings. On the 

 opposite side of the pit appears a long disc-shaped band of fine gravel 

 in clay, bounded above and below by a layer of coarse worn flints and 

 containing a lenticular sarsen of small size. Midway between 

 these and on the same level is a larger subangular sarsen, measuring 

 more than a yard across, containing a ' pot-hole.' 



There are therefore in this pit (as in all those adjoining) three 

 distinct formations : — 



(1) The 'rock,' or containing-wall, consisting of the ordinary 



Clay-with-Flints of the country, the flints being large and 

 unworn. 



(2) The fine clay from which the bricks are made, containing the 



huge blocks of tumbled sarsens (one of which is said to have 

 weighed over 200 tons) ; and on the summit of this fine grey 

 or reddish, homogeneous, tenacious clay there is : — 



(3) A thickness of roughly-mingled material, containing hori- 



zontal bands with worn flint-pebbles and drifted sarsens of 

 smaller size. 



Further enquiry and observation revealed a remarkable fact. 

 Each ' head ' of clay would fit roughly into a kind of crater or 

 funnel-shaped depression in the containing ' rock ' of clay with large 

 unworn flints, so that if the pits remained open after working had 

 ceased and the pit- owners were not obliged to fill them in, the ground 

 would present a kind of lunar surface pitted on the plateau with a 

 number of irregular conical depressions, having hard smooth sides 

 consisting of large flints thickly embedded in clay. The explanation, 



