1870.] CcODRINGTON—HAMPSHIRE AND ISLE-OF-WIGHT GRAVELS. 545 
(6) Mr. Prestwich has correlated* the Brighton beach and the 
Sussex gravel-beds with the estuarine beds of Menchecourt, and has 
also remarked+ on the close resemblance which the Menchecourt 
beds bear, marine characters apart, to those at Fisherton, near 
Salisbury. The flintimplements from the coast between Gosport and 
Southampton Water bear a corresponding resemblance to those from 
Fisherton and from Menchecourt. ‘The ovoid type greatly predomi- 
nates; and where, as at the Blackmore Museum, a large number of 
implements from the Hill Head gravels can be compared with a series 
from Fisherton, and from Milford Hill, near Salisbury, the general 
resemblance of the Hill Head and Fisherton specimens to each other 
and to the Menchecourt type, and the different character of the 
Milford Hill implements, and their resemblance to the spear-head 
form common at St. Acheul, are equally manifest. Adopting the 
supposition that the Avon flowed to the sea by Spithead, it is not 
difficult to trace a connexion between the Sussex and the Hill-Head 
gravels and the Fisherton beds. The gravel bordering on the north 
shore of the Solent carries on the Hill-Head gravel to Lymington, 
where an oval flint implement has been obtained from it, and on to 
Milford. Beyond this the coast is exposed to the open sea, and has 
been cut back, so that none of the lower level remains until the 
Avon valley is reached, six miles to the westward. There contorted 
gravel and brick-earth are seen in the cliff-section of the old river 
channel beyond Hengistbury Head, at from 20 to 40 feet above the 
sea-level, and thence the connexion of the valley-gravels up to 
Salisbury is plain. The plateau of Beaulieu Heath, which is about 
70 feet above the lower gravel on the north of the Solent, and which 
corresponds in level and position to Titchfield common, stretches 
continuously to Poole, broken only by the river-valleys, as is shown 
in section No. 2. In the gravel covering of this tableland the 
flint implements of Bournemouth are imbedded, and it seems pro- 
bable that the gravel of the plains at this level near the coast may 
correspond in age with the high-level valley-gravels, as it does in 
position with regard to the lower valley-gravels. 
Having thus a sort of datum-line with which to compare the levels 
of the gravel covering the plains, it appears that while near the 
coast the tableland is but 50 or 60 feet above the lower valley- 
gravels of the Avon, at Fordingbridge it is 250 feet higher than 
beds with flint implements and Hlephas prinugenius, which lie about 
AO feet above the river ; and when the tableland attains its greatest 
elevation near Bramshaw Telegraph, it is 240 feet above the Fisher- 
ton beds in actual level, or if the plain were prolonged at the same 
inclination it would pass 400 feet above the Fisherton beds, and 320 
feet above the top of Milford Hill at Salisbury. 
- It is remarkable that the inclination of this tableland, if pro- 
longed still further, is found to touch the highest points of the 
‘country up to the source of the Avon; namely, Dean Hill, and 
Beacon Hill, Milk Hill, and Martinsell on the north of the vale of 
Pewsey. 
* Phil. Trans. 1864. t Phil, Trans. 1860. 
