42 Mr. C. Reid. The Palceoliiliic Deposits at Hitchin 



being used again and again, the composition of the gravel is practi- 

 cally the same in each case, except for the occurrence of implements 

 in the newer deposits. It was soon found that Mr. Hill was right as 

 to the difficulty of obtaining satisfactory evidence from a study of the 

 gravels. Even between clear sections correlation is impossible, and 

 boring in boulder gravels is so difficult and expensive that I did not 

 feel justified in spending money in attempting to penetrate them to 

 the boulder clay. Even if the boulder clay were reached, it would 

 be fairly open to any critic to say that nothing had been settled, as 

 there is no evidence which of some three or four gravels may be the 

 one represented at that particular spot. 



The first thing to be done evidently was to ascertain whether the 

 chalky boulder clay, an undoubted glacial deposit, passes under or 

 over the Palaeolithic brickearth. With this object, borings were 

 made in the pits out of which implements have been dug. The 

 details of the borings are given in the Appendix ; the results may be 

 shortly summarised thus : — In Ransom's (New) Brickyard, after 

 penetrating the Paleolithic brickearth and underlying fluviatile loam 

 to a depth of 60 feet, some blue, chalky clay was penetrated in BH 2, 

 and in BH 1 derivative fossils from the boulder clay were obtained at 

 about the same level in the lower part of the old alluvium. In each 

 case boring was stopped by gravelly sand full of water. Other 

 borings in Jeeves' Yard and in some old brick -pits on Maydencroft 

 Farm yielded no trace of boulder clay. One only (BH 12) passed 

 through undoubted boulder clay. The section was — 



Feet. 



Palaeolithic. Yellow brickearth and small stones. . ^ ^Qp^fj 5J 



Ancient J Yellow and white marl and silt , 2 



Alluvium. 1 Yellow loam and small chalk pebbles ..... i 



pChalky boulder clay 9 



I Loamy chalky gravel (base of the boulder 



Glacial. <J clay ♦ 2 



Gravelly sand (boring stopped by large 



stones) 8 



36 



The site of this boring is close to the western margin of the old 

 channel, chalk appearing at the surface within a short distance, 

 The occurrence of the chalky boulder clay at this spot at a high 

 level, and its absence, or representation by derivative material, at 

 lower levels in borings made nearer to the centre of the channel, 

 suggest that the channel was, to a large extent, excavated, or 

 re-excavated, after the deposition of the boulder clay, as was the case 

 at Hoxne. 



