362 
times than is that nevertheless distant epoch to which we have 
hitherto referred it. 
Starting from entirely different premises, Mr. Searles Y, Wood, 
junior,* has recently reached a conclusion with regard to the 
implement-bearing beds at Hoxne, which are so well known from 
Professor Prestwich’s memoirs in the ‘ Philosophical Transactions,’ 
which is somewhat parallel to that of Mr. Skertchly. These 
fresh- water deposits at Hoxne are described by Professor Prestwich 
as resting in a hollow of the boulder clay, near a small lateral 
branch of the valley through which the Waveney and Little Ouse 
rivers flow. They are situated on high land, 50 feet above the 
present level of the Waveney, and about half a mile from the 
southern brow of the valley. It was almost impossible to suppose 
that a fresh-water lake could occupy such a position, if the physical 
features of the country were the same as at present ; and this fact, 
and the occurrence of patches of gravel near to the edge of the 
high land bordering the valley, led Mr. Prestwich to conclude that 
the river Waveney at that time flowed at a much higher level, and 
had since excavated its valley to its present depth. This view has 
been opposed by the late Mr. J. W. Flower, Mr. Wood, and others, 
on the ground that the physical features of the district are incon- 
sistent with such an hypothesis. The valley in which the Waveney 
flows is a continuous gorge of pretty even width, extending from 
the fen country to the German Ocean. At Lopham ford, about 
half way from each end, and at a point where the valley is nearly 
as wide and deep as it is elsewhere, two streams take their rise in a 
stagnant marsh, one the Little Ouse, flowing westwards, and the 
other the Waveney, flowing to the east. It seems hardly possible 
that two streams could cut away and level down their joint Avater- 
shed so completely as they must have done if Mr. PrcstAvich’s 
theory bo correct.t Indeed the real bottom of the valley at this 
* Mr. Belt has also, although on different grounds, urged the interglacial, 
if not preglacial, age of the Hoxne brickearth. — Quart. Journ. Science, 
July, 1876. 
t For a fuller account of Mr. Wood’s views, see Geological Magazine for 
December 1877, p. 550. 
