95 



(3) There are occasional traces of stratification, and current 

 bedding is very evident in places. 



(4) Palaeolithic implements are occasionally found sparsely 

 scattered amongst the flints, at all depths, and never in 

 groups. 



(5) I have never detected any scratches that could with 

 certainty be attributed to ice-action. 



To the west of Bournemouth pier this gravel lies on the 

 Middle or Estuarine portion of the Bagshot Beds — according to 

 Starkie Gardner's classification. East of the pier it lies on the 

 Boscombe Sands, which form the lowest beds of the Bracklesham 

 Series. West of Boscombe the gravel lies on the pebble and 

 shingle beds of the Bracklesham, which consist of beds of well 

 rounded flints that have been battered and originally formed part 

 of the old sea-shore near what in Eocene times formed the mouth 

 of the great river which laid down in succession the various Eocene 

 beds of the Hampshire basin. The differences between these two 

 gravels are very marked, and it is usually possible to tell from 

 which of them any individual flint has been derived. 



That these plateau gravels have not been deposited by ice- 

 action is obvious from their position, their occurrence in sheets, 

 their current bedding, and the regular dispersal of palaeolithic 

 implements amongst them. Neither can they have been deposited 

 by rivers, which can hardly have flowed over such large areas on 

 the tops of plateau land. It seems equally impossible that they 

 could have existed in their present position during the glacial 

 period. If so, they must have been broken up and distorted, it not 

 entirely swept away, by the denuding forces then at work. We 

 seem to be driven to the opinion they were deposited by torrents of 

 flowing water, which must have swept them together, collected and 

 deposited them in sheets, leaving them in their present position. 

 It has been suggested that these floods may have resulted from 

 melting ice at the close of the glacial period, but I think it more 

 probable that this occurred during the rising of the land after the 

 last great submergence which closed the palaeolithic period.* This 

 submergence is in accordance with the views of the late Sir Joseph 

 Prestwich in his book " On Certain Phenomena belonging to the 

 Close of the Last Geological Period," according to whom the raised 

 beaches with their " heads," and the osseous fissures at Plymouth 

 and elsewhere, are relics of the same general submergence, the last 

 of the many to which our land has been subjected in geological 

 times. These raised beaches are found at Portland, Torquay, 

 Weston-super-Mare, and many other points, as well as at Gower, as 

 referred to on page 74 of Dr. Colley March's paper. According to 

 Sir Joseph Prestwich's opinion, the deposits resting upon the head at 

 Gower would not therefore be of glacial age.f 



There can be no reason, however, why signs of glacial action 

 should not be found upon the flints of the plateau gravel, nor why 



* For the effect of such submergence in Northern Europe, see the Rev, A. 

 Irving's Paper in Q.J.G. Soc, xxxix., p. 77. 

 f The Tradition of the Flood, p. 84. 



