THE QUARTERLY 
JOURNAL OF SCIENCE. 
JULY, 1876. 
I. ON THE GEOLOGICAL AGE OF THE DEPOSITS 
CONTAINING FLINT IMPLEMENTS, 
AT HONNE, IN SUSSEX, 
AND THE 
RELATION THAT PALAEOLITHIC MAN BORE 
TO THE GLACIAL PERIOD. 
By Thomas Belt, F.G.S. 
ONCERNING the glacial period, geologists hold the 
most varied opinions, both with regard to its origin 
and to the mode of aCtion of the ice. Thus at the 
very threshold of the geological record we tread on uncertain 
ground, and every guide points to a different path. The re- 
lation that palaeolithic man bore to the great ice age might 
seem to be of easier solution ; but even this question is un- 
settled, and a subject of controversy and doubt. Prof. 
Prestwich is believed by many to have proved that palaeo- 
lithic man was post-glacial. Messrs. Croll and Geikie urge 
that there were two or more glacial periods in post-tertiary 
times, and that he flourished in a mild interglacial period. 
I, on the contrary, have been gradually forced to conclude 
that, in the British Isles, all the remains in caves and valley 
gravels referred to palaeolithic man are preglacial, in the 
sense that they are of earlier date than the glaciation of the 
districts in which they are found. 
I propose to state briefly some of the general arguments 
that have influenced my opinion, and then to deal with the 
special question of the age of the deposits at Hoxne, which 
the advocates of the post-glacial theory put forward as being 
undoubtedly in their favour. 
Let us first take into consideration the age of the beds 
VOL. VI. (N.S.) S F 
