1876.] Deposits containing Flint Implements. 303 
but more probable. That other interpretation I have indi- 
cated in the general section, Fig. 5, in which all the fadts 
observed are incorporated. I consider that the dark clay 
with vegetable remains and bones of the large extinct mam- 
mals is pre-glacial, in the sense that it is older than any of 
the glacial beds of the district. The gravel below the “ red 
brick earth ” in which Mr. Frere found the flint implements 
is probably of the same age, or of that of the overlying 
gravel, 5 in Figs. 4 and 5. That the implements, and also 
fragments of bones and wood, should be occasionally found 
in the overlying deposits, is what might be expected, as they 
were in great measure formed by the denudation of the 
older ones. The “ red brick earth,” 4 in section, is, I be- 
lieve, a true glacial clay, belonging to the latter part of the 
first European lake. It is a noticeable fadf that all over 
Northern Europe the glacial clays burn to a red colour,— a 
point not without significance with regard to the red beds of 
Permian or Triassic age. The false-bedded sands and 
gravels (3 in Figs. 4 and 5) belong, I think, to the middle 
glacial series, and the clay (2 in Figs. 4 and 5) is, I think, 
the upper boulder clay. These views are only theoretical, 
but I claim that they are based upon as sound a foundation, 
and are as much in accordance with the fadts of the case, as 
those generally received. 
Another interpretation is tenable, namely, that the lower 
boulder clay underlies the brick clays, and that the upper 
boulder clay overlies them, whilst they themselves belong to 
a warm interglacial period, as held by Messrs. Croll and 
Geikie. I do not agree with this opinion, as I can nowhere 
find any evidence of a warm interglacial period, and am un- 
willing to believe that there were more than one post-tertiary 
glacial periods, when one will explain all the phenomena ; 
but if it were to turn out that the lower boulder clay does 
exist beneath the brick clays at Hoxne, it would be one of 
the strongest facts in its favour yet brought forward. 
I now come to the real point and objedt of this paper. 
We have in England, at Hoxne, one of the finest opportu- 
nities known to exist anywhere in Europe of determining 
the true relation that the beds containing remains of palaeo- 
lithic man and the great extinct Mammalia bear to the 
glacial period ; yet we have been content for more than a 
dozen years to allow the age of the beds that underlie these 
deposits to remain a conjedture, and to accept a theory in- 
stead of ascertaining what are the true fadts of the case. 
The geological world has been taught to believe that a 
question was settled that is not settled. We do know the 
