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THE GEOLOGIST. 



ON A RECENT FINDING OF FLINT-IMPLEMENTS AT 



BEDFORD. 



By James Wyatt, F.G.S. 



[Having knowledge of the important discovery of flint-implements 

 in the Drift-gravel near Bedford by Mr. Wyatt, we requested that 

 gentleman to furnish us with the details of the case, which he has 

 kindly done, and which we have much pleasure in subjoining. 

 Having ourselves seen the implements found, which are of the 

 veritable fossil types, we shall append in a note to Mr. Wyatt' s letter 

 a figure of one of them, with some remarks of our own upon it. — 

 Ed. Geol.] 



Sir, — I send you, as you request, an account of the discovery, by 

 myself, of flint implements beneath thirteen feet six inches of undis- 

 turbed deposits, in drift-gravel, lying on Oolite limestone at Bedford. 

 For several years past I have been a close observer of the Drift, fine 

 sections of which in the neighbourhood of Bedford have been frequently 

 displayed during the excavation for road material, and especially 

 during the construction of the Leicester and Hitchin Railway. 

 From the nature of these gravel beds, and from the number 

 of bones and teeth of the extinct mammals which I have seen 

 taken from them, I formed an opinion that they were the same 

 kind of drift which had furnished the flint-implements at Amiens 

 and Hoxne ; and this opinion was greatly strengthened by an 

 examination of the pits in the valley of the Somme last year. I 

 have observed amongst the fossil remains from the lower gravel in 

 Bedfordshire bones and teeth of Elephas primigenius, JE. antiquus, 

 Equus fossilis, Bos primigenius, Cervus, Rhinoceros tichorinus, and 

 Hippopotamus. From the sand veins of the same drift I have taken the 

 following land and fresh- water shells : — Helix concinna, Velletia laeustris, 

 Cyclas palustris, Limneus pereger, L. auricularis, Planorbis marginatus, 

 Pahidinaimpura, Valvcda piscinalis, &c. The curious little fossil sponges 

 Coscinopora globularis, both whole and perforated, are frequently 

 found there also, thus showing many points of similarity with the 

 drift in France. After recently finding flint-implements at 

 Reculver, I renewed my investigations in Bedfordshire, but for a 

 long time without success. It may be added here that the pits do 

 not all display the same complete stratification : they are very vari- 

 able, and in several places the lowest gravel is not excavated on 

 account of the water coming in ; and, indeed, for road-material it is 

 of no value, being principally sand. Such is the case at some of the 

 pits at Kempston and Clapham : whilst those which have been worked 

 at the centre of the latter parish, at Bletsoe, Radwell, Biddenham, 

 Harrowden, and Bedford, have been excavated to the full depth of the 



