74 
Stone Implements in Glacial Drift. [January, 
deposits, as assumed by most of our geologists up to that 
time, had not been proved ; and I urged that we ought not 
to allow the matter to remain doubtful when it could be 
cleared up by sinking a few shafts in different parts of the 
ground. No aCtion has been taken by our learned societies 
to whom I appealed, but now discoveries in other places 
have caused many to doubt the post-glacial age of some of 
the deposits containing implements, and they may be more 
inclined to listen to my appeal. 
At Hoxne the expenditure of £ 200 would probably, and 
of £500 certainly, I think, show the relations of the depo- 
sits there to each other, and clear up the question of the 
glacial or post-glacial age of the beds containing the relics 
of palaeolithic man and the great pachyderms. Large 
sums, and with results exceeding our anticipations, have 
been spent on the exploration of the cavern deposits, and 
we have ascertained definitely from them that man and the 
great extinCt mammals lived at the same time. We should 
now take another step, and determine the exadt position 
that the same fauna holds in the geological series ; and this 
can be done at Hoxne. We send out scientific expeditions 
to the ends of the world, and rightly so I think, and yet 
here is one of the grandest problems that can interest man- 
kind lying at our doors, and lying negledted. Granted that 
I may be mistaken, and that Prof. Prestwich — whose geolo- 
gical opinion is properly of much greater weight than mine 
— may be right ; is it not worth while to set the question at 
rest, and not consume our time in fruitless discussions and 
barren congresses ? My glacial theory is the outcome of 
many years of study of the phenomena with which it deals, 
and I know that it has been fashioned with sincerity ; but it 
is not so dear to me that I should hesitate to put my own 
shoulder to topple over the edifice I have reared if I could 
find reason to believe that it was not founded on truth. If 
the explorations that I urge, ought to be undertaken at 
Hoxne, be carrried out, and prove that the implement-bearing 
beds are post-glacial, I shall at least have the satisfaction 
of thinking that not only has my own geological vision been 
cleared, but that Mr. Prestwich- — whose writings for more 
than twenty years have been my study and delight — has 
been proved to be right. But trivial and paltry are these 
personal considerations compared with the issues that are 
undetermined, and which it is our duty and privilege to 
clear up, when we have at Hoxne such an opportunity of 
doing so as is not known to exist anywhere else in Europe. 
