CHAPTER IV 
ENGLISHMEN OF THE LATER PALEOLITHIC PERIODS 
In this chapter we return to England to again take up 
the story of ancient man. Our object is to see what 
traces have been discovered of the various cultures 
revealed by the caves of France, and specially to ascertain 
what kinds of men lived in England before the days 
of Neolithic man. The scene of our first inquiry is 
again in the south-east corner of England, in the county 
of Kent, and within a few miles of the Megalithic 
monument at Coldrum described in the first chapter. 
From Coldrum, we must follow the Medway north- 
wards as it leaves the Weald to enter the valley in 
the North Downs by which it reaches Rochester and 
Chatham and finally ends in the estuary of the Thames 
(fig. i). Within this valley, and on the western side of 
the Medway, is the busy little town of Hailing, robbed 
somewhat of its ancient picturesqueness by the invasion 
of cement works, which throw a pall of smoke, obscuring 
our view of the rising domes of the Downs. Opposite 
Hailing the Medway is banked ; at high tide the barges 
with their large brown sails seem to float some feet above 
the level of the wide stretch of marshland — half a mile 
wide — which separates Hailing from the river. Between 
Hailing and the marsh, however, is a natural terrace — 
8 feet above the level of the marsh and 15 feet (4-5 m.) 
above the zero level of the Ordnance Survey (Ordnance 
datum). The terrace follows the margin of the marshy 
floor of the valley as if it represented an ancient bank 
of the Medway, which it probably does. It was in this 
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