44 Mr. C. Reid. The Palceolithie Deposits at Hitcldn 



similar results, but only the one already mentioned (BH 12) reached 

 undoubted boulder clay below the alluvial strata. 



The relation of the boulder clay to the alluvial deposits having- 

 been settled, attention was devoted to an attempt to penetrate to the 

 bottom of the valley in its deepest part. A trial-pit was sunk in 

 Ransom's old brickyard, within a few yards of the spot where a pit 

 had been sunk by Messrs. Prestwich and Evans in 1877, and samples 

 were taken from various depths for washing and minute examination 

 in London. In this brickyard a large number of implements had 

 been obtained from the irregular gravelly base of the brickearth^ 

 where it rests on the older alluvial deposits. The newer brickearth, 

 here about 24 feet thick, had been already entirely removed at the 

 spot where the trial-pit was sunk, and it was hoped that the pit 

 could be sunk to the full depth of the old channel. After sinking 

 14 feet through brown bedded carbonaceous loam, full of badly pre- 

 served shells and plant remains, the weather became so unsettled 

 that there was a fear of the pit caving in, or becoming flooded, before 

 the work was completed. Boring tools were therefore used, and a 

 further depth of 17J feet of alluvial loam was penetrated before the 

 gravelly sand below was reached. At the base of the alluvium was 

 found a foot or so of hard black loam with freshwater shells and 

 fragments of Jurassic fossils derived from the boulder clay. As the 

 quicksand below could not be penetrated without the expenditure of 

 more time and money than could fairly be devoted to such unsatis- 

 factory work, the boring was then abandoned. 



In working out the material afterwards, it became evident that 

 from top to bottom the alluvial deposits below the Palaeolithic brick- 

 earth belonged to one series, the same plants occurring throughout. 

 We have therefore only two deposits to deal with — a stony brickearth 

 yielding little or nothing but Palaeolithic implements, and a series of 

 ancient alluvial deposits below full of plants and shells, but, as far as 

 known, without trace of man. The mammalian remains all come, I 

 am informed, from the whitish marly silt which occurs locally 

 immediately below the Palaeolithic brickearth. They are mostly in 

 Mr. W. Ransom's collection, and were determined by Mr. Sanford. 

 The remainder of the animals and plants, with the exception of two 

 species of mollusca, were obtained in the trial-pit just described. 

 For the determination of the fishes, I must thank my colleague, Mr. 

 E. T. Newton ; for the mosses Mr. W. Mitten ; for the mollusca and 

 flowering plants I am responsible. 



Mammals. 



Ursus; Equus caballus, Linn.; Rhinoceros; Hippopotamus (a 

 waterworn bone) ; Cervus elaphus, Linn. ; Elephas primigenius. 

 Blumb. 



