50 
On Deneholes. 
found, but they were not numerous. 4 The object there also 
was to w T ork out a better flint-band than any nearer the sur¬ 
face. The depth of the shafts appears to have been about 
twenty to thirty feet. 
We have thus in these two important ancient flint-working 
stations an essential identity of plan, purpose, and geological 
position. It is true that, as to this last point, we found 
thirteen feet of sand on the surface at Brandon, while only a 
few inches of soil covered the chalk at Cissbury. But in the 
thirteen feet of sand were many unworn flint nodules identical 
in character with those found elsewhere at the top of the 
chalk, and indicating by their presence the close proximity of 
that formation. At Cissbury there were signs that the pits 
had been used more or less for habitation, but the primary 
intention of the original excavators was undoubtedly to work 
out a particular flint-band. This is as evident as that the 
arrangements at a modern colliery are primarily adapted to 
the working out of a particular coal. 
I now pass from these ancient flint-working stations to the 
equally remarkable artificial caves with vertical entrances, 
which are known as Deneholes, a word meaning den- holes. 
Strange to say, these pits, though mentioned by Camden, 
Lambarde, and Hasted, have received extremely little atten¬ 
tion from the scientific observers of the present century, 
Mr. F. C. J. Spurrell being indeed the only person who 
deserves to be considered an authority upon them. And as 
Mr. Spurrell’s first paper on the subject, of any importance, 
was read before the Archaeological Institute so recently as 
April 7tli, 1881, the result is that, while almost all geologists 
and anthropologists know more or less about Grimes Graves 
and Cissbury, the Deneholes of Bexley and Grays remain 
comparatively unknown. I may illustrate the neglect with 
which they have been treated by the following example. 
The late Dr. Buckland, the very eminent geologist, remarks, 
in his paper on the “ Plastic Clay,” written in 1817 5 :—“ The 
4 “ Additional Discoveries at Cissbury,” by J. Park Harrison, M.A. 
Journ. Anthrop. Inst., May, 1878. Cissbury is 3^ miles N. of Worthing, 
Sussex. There is a model of the workings in the Pitt-Bivers Anthrop. Coll. 
5 Trans. Geol. Soc., vol. iv. (1817). 
