LOW LEVEL GRAVELS OF THE RIVER LEA. 
7 ?> 
The breaking strain was therefore ’145 gramme. Addition 
of the weight ‘070 gramme caused the thread to elongate half 
an inch. 
The length of the larva experimented with was f in. and its- 
weight *063 gramme. 
NOTES ON THE LOW-LEVEL GRAVELS OF 
THE RIVER LEA AND THEIR PALEOLITHIC 
IMPLEMENTS, 
Ey ARTHUR WRIGLEY. 
[Read 27 th February 1915 .] 
TUDENTS of palaeolithic man will be well aware that, 
v3 in respect of flint implements, the lowdevel gravels of 
the Thames and its tributaries are singularly barren. The 
occurrence even of derivative implements in the low-level gravels 
of the Lea is therefore perhaps worth recording. From Wal¬ 
thamstow to beyond Leyton and Stratford, the Lea meanders 
through a wide, flat-bottomed valley, bounded on both the 
Middlesex and Essex sides by a distinctly marked bank of middle 
terrace deposits. On the Leyton side of the valley at Temple 
Mills 1 some excavations have yielded from the base of the 
low-level gravel the well-known Arctic bed associated with 
Pleistocene mammalia and derived palaeolithic implements. 
The latter are of Chelles and St. Acheul types, greatly rolled, 
having patinations very similar to those of the implements 
found in the adjacent middle terrace deposits of Leyton and 
Wanstead. Flint flakes have also been obtained; they have 
no secondary chipping, and consequently are of no definite 
type, but in general they present a late pakeolithic appearance. 
One remarkable piece from this locality might well be a Solutrian 
lance-head with the points broken off and greatly abraded, though 
this, of course, is merely a conjecture. On the other side of 
the Valley in the neighbourhood of Hackney Wick, the base 
of the low level gravel has yielded a peat whose seeds suggest a 
temperate flora with northern affinities, pleistocene mammalia, 
and derived palaeolithic implements. These are of Chelles 
type, much rolled, peat stained or with a sepia-coloured patina- 
tion. As they occur in a bleached gravel, it is quite conceivable 
1 Essex Nat., vol. xvii., p. 121. 
