Part 15

There was a deposit of about 7 feet of ferruginous, unctuous cave-earth, mixed with angular fragments of limestone rock, forming the floor, which was in part, if not wholly, of stalagmite. The fossil remains found in the cave included _Ursus spelæus_, _Hyæna spelæa_, _Felis spelæa_, _Rhinoceros hemitœchus_ and _tichorhinus_, _Elephas antiquus_ and _primigenius_, _Bison priscus_ and _Cervus tarandus_. Flint implements, unquestionably of human manufacture, were found along with these remains; and one very fine flint “arrow-head,” as termed by Dr. Falconer,[2445] was found at a depth of 4 1∕2 feet in the cave-earth, contiguous to a detached shell of a milk molar of _Rhinoceros hemitœchus_, and at the same depth. Other flint implements were found at a depth of 3 feet below the stalagmite, associated with remains of _Cervus Guettardi_, a variety of reindeer. Sir Charles Lyell[2446] has remarked that this is the first well-authenticated example of the occurrence of _Rhinoceros hemitœchus_ in connection with human implements. Dr. Falconer has also recognized the same species, in the fragment of an upper milk molar, discovered in the Wookey Hole Hyæna Den by Prof. Boyd Dawkins.

I have had an opportunity of examining casts of the worked flints from Long Hole, in the Christy Collection, and find them to |521| consist exclusively of flakes, some of them well and symmetrically formed, and exhibiting on their edges the marks arising from use.

In some of the other caverns in the same district, Prof. Boyd Dawkins has also discovered flint flakes associated with the remains of a similar group of animals. The Oyle Cave,[2447] Tenby, and Hoyle’s Mouth,[2448] have also afforded flint flakes associated with the remains of a nearly similar fauna.

In the Coygan Cave,[2449] Carmarthenshire, Mr. Laws, of Tenby, found two flint flakes with remains of mammoth and rhinoceros below a foot of stalagmite. In the Ffynnon Beunos Cave,[2450] Dr. H. Hicks, F.R.S., found several worked flints (one like Fig. 390) with bones of Pleistocene animals below a stalagmite breccia, and in the Cae Gwyn Cave[2451] a long scraper with bones of rhinoceros. A flint flake[2452] was found under Drift outside the covered entrance to the cave. Dr. Hicks regards these caves as Pre-Glacial, a view in which I cannot agree.

In the Pont Newydd Cave[2453] near Cefn, Prof. T. McK. Hughes, F.R.S., found, with plentiful remains of the Pleistocene fauna, including _Rhinoceros hemitœchus_, a number of implements of distinctly palæolithic forms made of felstone and chert, as well as one of flint. This cave can be proved to be Post-Glacial.

Another cave which may be mentioned is that known as King Arthur’s Cave, near Whitchurch, Ross, which was explored by the late Rev. W. S. Symonds, F.G.S., of Pendock.[2454] In this instance flint flakes, and cores formed of chert were found in the cave-earth, with bones and teeth of the usual mammals, in one part of the cavern; while in another, beneath a thick layer of stalagmite, itself covered by what appeared to be a portion of an old river-bed, flint flakes were found associated with the same fauna. Mr. Symonds assigns these fluviatile deposits to an ancient river now represented by the Wye, which flows 300 feet below the level of the cave. If this view be correct, there can, as he observes, hardly be better authenticated evidence of the antiquity of man in the records of cave-history, than that afforded by |522| this old river-bed overlying the thick stalagmite, beneath which the human relics were sealed up.

Since this book first appeared several important and interesting discoveries have been made in British Caves between Chesterfield and Worksop. Perhaps the most remarkable are those made in Creswell Crags on the north-eastern border of Derbyshire, by the Rev. J. Magens Mello,[2455] and Prof. Boyd Dawkins, F.R.S.,[2456] who commenced their labours in the year 1875. The ossiferous deposits, in which also traces of man were found, lay both in fissures and in caves in the Lower Magnesian Limestone. Those which yielded the most important stone implements were the Robin Hood and the Church Hole Caves, though Mother Grundy’s Parlour also contributed a few. In the Robin Hood Cave a stalagmitic breccia lay above the cave-earth. In this were found implements of quartzite and iron-stone, eighty-six in number, ruder than those of flint in the breccia. By the kindness of the Council of the Geological Society I am able to give a few representations of those of both classes. Fig. 413A shows an implement formed from a quartzite pebble worked at the point and side and of a distinctly Palæolithic type. It is much like the specimen from Saltley, Fig. 450B, and some made of similar material found in the neighbourhood of Toulouse.

[Illustration: Fig. 413A.—Robin Hood Cave. 1∕2]

Fig. 413B is of iron-stone, and so far as form is concerned might well have been found in a bed of old River-drift. Some hammer-stones and a side chopper of quartzite, in form like Fig. 443, were also found in the cave-earth. Some flint tools from the breccia are shown in the next three figures. Fig. 413C recalls one of the blades from Kent’s Cavern, Fig. 390, though of |523| smaller dimensions. Fig. 413D is almost identical with Fig. 399, while the borer, Fig. 413E, resembles those of the Neolithic Period. In all, there were found in the Robin Hood Cave no less than 1040 pieces of stone and bone showing traces of human workmanship. Among the bone objects were an awl and numerous pointed antler-tips, but the most remarkable is a smooth and rounded fragment of a rib having the head and forepart of a horse incised upon it. It is shown in Fig. 413F. In the Church Hole Cave 213 relics of human workmanship were found, principally flakes of flint, splinters, and quartzite stones. Two of the flakes, one of which is shown in Fig. 413G, are worn away on one edge only, as if the other edge had been protected by a wooden handle as suggested in the sketch.

[Illustration: Fig. 413B.—Robin Hood Cave. 1∕2]

[Illustration: Fig. 413C.—Robin Hood Cave. 1∕2]

[Illustration: Fig. 413D.—Robin Hood Cave. 1∕1]

[Illustration: Fig. 413E.—Robin Hood Cave.]

Among the bone objects was an oval plate notched at the sides and a bone needle, Fig. 413H. It is of larger size than is usual in caves of this period. |524|

The fauna comprised cave-lion, hyæna, bear, Irish elk, woolly rhinoceros, and mammoth. A fine upper canine of _Machairodus_ was also found. Most of the objects described are now in the British Museum. We have here another instance of quartzite implements of Palæolithic type, being found well to the north of the area in which drift-implements are usually discovered.

[Illustration: Fig. 413F.—Robin Hood Cave. 1∕1]

The relics found in the Victoria Cave[2457] at Settle belong to a later period than that of which I am treating.

A cave at Ballynamintra,[2458] Co. Waterford, is Neolithic.

[Illustration: Fig. 413G.—Church Hole Cave. 1∕1]

The Mentone caves would open so large a field for discussion that I content myself with a passing reference to them.

[Illustration: Fig. 413H.—Church Hole Cave. 1∕1]

Were no other evidence forthcoming, the results of an examination of the British caves already described would justify us in concluding that in this country man co-existed with a number of the larger mammals now for the most part absolutely extinct, while others have long since disappeared from this portion of the globe. The association, under slightly differing circumstances, |525| and in several distinct cases, of objects of human industry with the remains of this extinct fauna, in which so many of the animals characteristic of the existing fauna are “conspicuous by their absence,” in undisturbed beds, and for the most part beneath a thick coating of stalagmite, leads of necessity to this conclusion. This becomes, if possible, more secure when the results of the exploration of other caves on the Continent of Western Europe are taken into account. How long a period may have intervened between the extinction, or migration, of these animals and the present time is, of course, another question; but such changes in the animal world as had already taken place at least three thousand years ago, do not appear to occur either suddenly or even with great rapidity; and, leaving the stalagmite out of consideration, we have already seen that in some instances the physical configuration of the country in the immediate neighbourhood of the caves seems to have been greatly changed since the period of their infilling.

These changes are perhaps more conclusively illustrated in the case of the old river deposits, in which the remains of the same extinct fauna as that of the caves occur associated with implements manufactured by the hand of man, to which we must now direct our attention.

|526|

CHAPTER XXIII.

IMPLEMENTS OF THE RIVER-DRIFT PERIOD.

In treating of the implements belonging to the Palæolithic Period, and found in the ancient freshwater or river drifts in Britain, I propose first to give a slight sketch of the nature of the discoveries which have been made in this particular field of archæology; then to furnish some details concerning the localities where implements have been found, and the character of the containing beds; next, to offer a few remarks on the shape and possible uses of the various forms of implements; and, finally, to consider the evidence of their antiquity.

So much has already been written in England,[2459] as well as on the Continent, as to the history of these most curious discoveries, that a very succinct account of them will here suffice. It was in the year 1847, that M. Boucher de Perthes, of Abbeville, called attention to the finding of flint instruments fashioned by the hand of man, in the pits worked for sand and gravel, in the neighbourhood of that town. They occurred in such positions, and at such a depth below the surface, as to force upon him the conclusion that they were of the same date as the containing beds, which he regarded as of diluvial origin, or as monuments of a universal Deluge. In 1855, Dr. Rigollot,[2460] of Amiens, also published an account of the discovery of flint implements at St. Acheul, near Amiens, in a drift enclosing the remains of extinct animals, and at a depth of 10 feet or more from the surface. From causes into |527| which it is not necessary to enter, these discoveries were regarded with distrust in France, and were very far from being generally accepted by the geologists and antiquaries of that country.

In the autumn of 1858, however, that distinguished palæontologist, the late Dr. Hugh Falconer, F.R.S., visited Abbeville,[2461] in order to see M. Boucher de Perthes’s collection, and became “satisfied that there was a great deal of fair presumptive evidence in favour of many of his speculations regarding the remote antiquity of these industrial objects, and their association with animals now extinct.” Acting on Dr. Falconer’s suggestion, the late Sir Joseph Prestwich, F.R.S., whose extensive and accurate researches had placed him in the first rank of English geologists, visited Abbeville and Amiens, in April, 1859; where I, on his invitation, had the good fortune to join him. We examined the local collections of flint implements and the beds in which they were said to have been found; and, in addition to being perfectly satisfied with the evidence adduced as to the nature of the discoveries, we had the crowning satisfaction of seeing one of the worked flints still _in situ_, in its undisturbed matrix of gravel, at a depth of 17 feet from the original surface of the ground.

I may add that on March 26th, 1875, I dug out from the gravel, in a pit close to the seminary at Saint Acheul, a pointed implement at a depth of 10 feet 10 inches from the surface.

From the day on which Sir Joseph Prestwich gave an account to the Royal Society, of the results of his visit to the Valley of the Somme, the authenticity of the discoveries of M. Boucher de Perthes and Dr. Rigollot was established; and they were almost immediately followed by numerous others of the same character, both in France and England.

Before proceeding to describe the discoveries made in this country, it will be well to say a few words as to some others of those which have been made on the continent of Europe. In France such discoveries have been so abundant that it would be an almost hopeless task to enumerate the whole of them, I must, therefore, content myself by calling attention to a few only; and, moreover, shall not overburden my pages with references. One of the earliest discoveries was made by M. Vincent at Troyes[2462] (Aube), where, in 1850, at a depth of 3 metres, he found an |528| ovoid implement, but most of the recent finds date subsequently to 1859. Those made at Chelles[2463] (Seine et Marne) deserve especial mention, inasmuch as M. Gabriel de Mortillet, regarding the deposits at that place as being more of one and the same age than those at St. Acheul, has termed his oldest stage of the Palæolithic Period _Chelléen_ rather than _Acheuléen_. He places the _Moustérien_ next, but in some respects the subdivision is unsatisfactory. The _Elephas antiquus_ occurs at Chelles, but at Tilloux[2464] (Charente) _E. meridionalis_, _E. antiquus_, and _E. primigenius_ all occur together with well-marked palæolithic implements of usual types. At Paris itself, in the gravels of the valley of the Seine, numerous implements have been found, as well as lower down the valley at Sotteville, near Rouen. At Argues,[2465] near Dieppe, Saint Saen, and Bully,[2466] near Neufchâtel, they have also occurred. At Grand Morin[2467] (Seine et Marne) and Quiévy,[2468] (Nord), fine specimens have been found. At the Bois du Rocher,[2469] near Dinan, in the Côtes du Nord, numerous implements, mostly small and of fine-grained quartzite occur—I found eight there myself in 1876—and near Toulouse[2470] many larger and coarser examples chipped out of quartzite pebbles. I have also implements from Chelles made of a kind of quartzite. Of other localities in the north of France I may mention Guînes and Sangatte, near Calais; Montguillain and other spots near Beauvais; Thenay and Thézy, near Amiens, and Vaudricourt, near Béthune. In the district of the Loire I have found implements in the gravels of Marboué, near Châteaudun, and at Vendôme. Further south in Poitou they are abundant on the surface at Coussay-les-Bois and other places near Leugny. They have also been found in some abundance near Sens (Yonne), and occur in Dordogne, the Mâconnais and Champagne, the departments of Corrèze, Indre et Loire, Nièvre, and indeed over the greater part of France.

In Belgium several discoveries have been made, notably at Curange[2471] and Mesvin.[2472] |529|

To the east, in Germany,[2473] Austria,[2474] Hungary,[2475] and Russia,[2476] such discoveries, though rare, seem to be not entirely unknown. Further evidence, however, is desirable.

In Italy[2477] various implements, presumed to be of Palæolithic age, have been found in the gravels of the Tiber, but they are nearly all rude flakes. One, however, of ovate form, has been found near Gabbiano,[2478] in the Abruzzo.

Other well-defined implements have been found near Perugia,[2479] in the Imolese,[2480] Ceppagna[2481] (Molise), and elsewhere.

In the gravels of the valley of the Manzanares, at San Isidro, near Madrid, palæolithic implements of the usual types have been found, as well as some of a wedge shape, unlike the ordinary European types, but similar to one of the Madras forms. They are associated with the remains of an elephant, probably _E. antiquus_. The Quaternary beds at San Isidro are nearly 200 feet above the level of the existing river, and the implements that they contain are varied in character, some chipped out of porphyry and other old rocks, being very rude in fabric, while others of flint are as dexterously made as any of the ordinary specimens from St. Acheul. The first discovery made there was by M. Louis Lartet.[2482] I have on several occasions visited the spot. Diagrammatic sections of the valley have been given by Prof. A. Gaudry[2483] and M. E. Cartailhac.[2484] Messrs. Siret[2485] mention several other localities in Spain that have yielded palæolithic implements.

In Portugal[2486] also, both in gravels and in caves, such implements have been found, and a good ovate specimen, made of quartz, from Leiria, near Lisbon, has been figured by[2487]Cartailhac.

In Greece some almond-shaped implements, of the true |530| palæolithic type, are said to have been discovered in beds of sand near Megalopolis,[2488] with bones of the great pachyderms.

Returning to this country and to the year 1859, I may observe that it turned out on examination that more than one such discovery as those of Abbeville and Amiens had already been recorded, and that flint implements of similar types to the French had been found in the gravels of London at the close of the seventeenth century, and in the brick-earth of Hoxne, in Suffolk, at the close of the eighteenth, and were still preserved in the British Museum, and in that of the Society of Antiquaries.

During the thirty-eight years that have elapsed since renewed and careful attention was called to these implements, numerous other discoveries have taken place in various parts of England of instruments of analogous forms in beds of gravel, sand, and clay, for the most part on the slopes of our existing river valleys, though in some instances at considerable distances from any stream of water, and occasionally not thus embedded, but lying on the surface of the ground. Several of these discoveries have been made in localities where, from the nature of the deposits, it had already been suggested by the late Sir Joseph Prestwich and myself that implements would probably be found; and others have resulted from workmen, who had been trained to search for the implements in gravel, having migrated to new pits, where also their search has proved successful. In not a few instances the researches for such evidence of the antiquity of man have been carried on by fully qualified observers. It is, however, needless here to trace the causes and order of the discoveries, and I therefore propose to treat them in geographical, and not chronological, sequence. In so doing it will be most convenient to arrange them in accordance with the river systems in connection with which the gravels were deposited, wherein for the most part the implements have been found.

* * * * *

The district of which, following the order formerly adopted, it seems convenient first to treat, is the basin of the river Ouse and its tributaries, comprising, according to the Ordnance Survey,[2489] an area of 2,607 square miles. Beginning in the west of this district, I may mention the finding by Mr. Worthington G. Smith, F.L.S., of several implements near one of the sources of the Ouse, a little to the north of Leighton Buzzard. Through his kindness I possess a pointed, thick and deeply-stained implement, found at Bossington, about a mile north of Leighton. A more important scene of discoveries of this kind is the neighbourhood of Bedford, where the late Mr. James |531| Wyatt, F.G.S., obtained specimens so early as April, 1861, since which time considerable numbers have been found. The pit in which they first occurred is one near Biddenham, in which I had, some few years before, discovered freshwater and land shells,[2490] and which I had, previously to Mr. Wyatt’s discovery, already visited with him in the expectation of finding flint implements in the gravel. The other localities in the immediate neighbourhood of Bedford where palæolithic implements have been found, are Harrowden,[2491] Cardington, Kempston, Summerhouse Hill, and Honey Hill, all within a radius of four miles.

The Ouse near Bedford winds considerably in its course, which has in all probability much changed at different periods, the valley through which the river now passes being of great width. As instances of its changes even within historical times, it may be mentioned that the chapel in which Offa,[2492] King of Mercia, was interred, is said to have been washed away by the Ouse; and in the time of Richard II.[2493] its course was so much altered, near Harrold, that the river is recorded to have ceased flowing, and its channel to have remained dry, for three miles.

At Biddenham, the beds of Drift-gravel form a capping to a low hill about two miles in length, and about three quarters of a mile in width, which is nearly encircled by one of the windings of the river. Judging from the section given by Sir Joseph Prestwich,[2494] the highest point which the gravel attains is about 59 feet above the river, and its surface in the pit, where the implements are found, is 40 feet above it. The gravel rests upon the Cornbrash, or upper member of the Lower Oolite; but the valley itself, though partly in the limestone rock, has been cut through a considerable thickness of Oxford Clay and of Boulder Clay, which here overlies it. The gravel consists of subangular stones in an ochreous matrix, interspersed with irregular seams of sand and clay.[2495] It is principally composed of fragments of flint, local Oolitic _débris_, pebbles of quartz and of sandstones from the New Red Sandstone conglomerates, with fragments of various old rocks. All these latter have no doubt been derived from the washing away of the Boulder Clay or of other Glacial beds. The thickness of the gravel, in the pit where the implements have been principally found, is about 13 feet, and detailed sections of it have been given by Sir Joseph Prestwich and by Mr. Wyatt. Dispersed throughout, from a depth of about 5 feet from the surface down to the base, are to be found land and freshwater shells, mostly in fragments, but occasionally perfect. Their character has been determined by the late Mr. Gwyn Jeffreys, F.R.S.;[2496] and they consist—including some specimens from Harrowden and Summerhouse Hill—of various species of _Sphærium_, or _Cyclas_, _Pisidium_, _Bythinia_, _Valvata_, _Hydrobia_, _Succinea_, _Helix_, |533| _Pupa_, _Planorbis_, _Limnæa_, _Ancylus_, _Zua_, and _Unio_. Of these the _Hydrobia_ (_marginata_) has never been found alive in this country.

[Illustration: Fig 414.—Biddenham, Bedford. 1∕1]

Mammalian remains also occur in the gravel, principally towards its base. Including other localities in the neighbourhood of Bedford, besides those already mentioned, but where the gravel is of the same character, remains of the following animals have been found:[2497] _Ursus spelæus_, _Cervus tarandus_, _Cervus elaphus_, _Bos primigenius_, _Bison priscus_, _Hippopotamus major_, _Rhinoceros tichorhinus_, _Rhinoceros megarhinus_, _Elephas antiquus_, _Elephas primigenius_, _Equus_, and _Hyæna spelæa_.

[Illustration: Fig. 415.—Biddenham, Bedford. 1∕1]

I have already given in the _Archæologia_[2498] full-size figures of two of the implements from the Biddenham pit, which are here reproduced.

[Illustration: Fig. 416.—Biddenham, Bedford. 1∕2]

[Illustration: Fig. 417.—Biddenham, Bedford. 1∕2]

Fig. 414, though worked to a wedge-like point, is very massive, weighing something over 1 1∕2 lb. The butt-end has been roughly |534| chipped into form, and has some sharp projections left upon it, so that it can hardly have been intended to be simply held in the hand when |535| used, but was either mounted in some manner, or else some means were adopted for protecting the hand against its asperities. I have already called attention to its resemblance to an implement from Kent’s Cavern, Fig. 388A.

The second specimen, Fig. 415, still shows the natural crust of the flint at its truncated end, and is well adapted for being held in the hand when used.

Other specimens from the Biddenham Pit are engraved on the scale of one-half linear measure in Figs. 416 to 418.

The whole, with the exception of Fig. 417, were in the collection of the late Mr. Wyatt.

Fig. 416 is of ochreous cherty flint, symmetrically chipped, and showing a portion of the original crust of the flint at the base. Its angles are sharp, and not water-worn. In character it much resembles many of the implements from the valley of the Little Ouse, and from St. Acheul, near Amiens.

The original of Fig. 417 is in my own collection, having been kindly presented to me by Mr. Wyatt. As will be seen, it is remarkably thick at the butt, which is somewhat battered, almost as if the instrument had been used as a wedge. On a part of the butt is a portion of the white crust of the flint, which is somewhat striated, and suggestive of the block of flint from which the implement was fashioned having been derived from some Glacial deposit.

Fig. 418 represents a very curious form of implement made from a part of a sub-cylindrical nodule of flint, and chipped to a rounded point at one end, and truncated at the other, where the original fractured surface of the flint is left intact. The angles at the pointed end are but little worn.

Implements of various other forms and sizes have been found in the gravels near Bedford, but in character they so closely correspond with those found in other parts of England, and in France, that it seems needless to particularize them. One of them, however, in my own collection, 10 1∕4 inches long by 4 1∕4 inches wide, tongue-like in character, but of a long ovate shape, deserves special mention. It was found at Biddenham. The flat ovate, or oval type, is there of extremely rare occurrence.

[Illustration: Fig. 418.—Biddenham, Bedford. 1∕2]

I have numerous other specimens from the Bedford gravels, principally from Kempston, and others exist in various public and private collections. Like the mammalian remains, they occur for the most part towards the base of the gravel, but occasionally at higher levels in the beds. Besides the more highly wrought instruments, knife-like flakes of flint have been found, some of them presenting |536| evidence of use upon their edges. A few flakes trimmed at the end into scraper-like form have also been discovered.

At Tempsford, some seven or eight miles below Bedford, the river Ouse is joined by the small river Ivel, a branch of which, the Hiz, rises from the Chalk escarpment near Hitchin, and joins the Ivel at Langford. About two miles south of the junction of these two streams, near Henlow, Bedfordshire, Mr. F. J. Bennett, of the Geological Survey, found in 1868 a flint implement of palæolithic type, not indeed in gravel, but lying on the surface. It is 4 inches long and 2 1∕2 broad, and of the same general character as that from Icklingham, Fig. 420, but rather more acutely pointed at each end. It is ochreous on one face, and grey black on the other, and not improbably may have been derived from some gravelly bed. I remarked in 1872 that this discovery seemed to place the Ivel and Hiz among the rivers, in the valley-gravels of which, farther search would probably be rewarded.

Since then at Ickleford,[2499] near Hitchin, numerous implements, some of them much water-worn, have been found by Mr. Frank Latchmore and others in gravels lying in the valley of the Hiz. I have also an acutely-pointed specimen from Bearton Green,[2500] a little to the north of Hitchin, in an angle between the rivers Oughton and Hiz.

But the most important discoveries are those which have been made a short distance to the south of the town of Hitchin. There, near the summit of a hill cut off by valleys on three sides from higher land, a brickfield has been worked for some years by Mr. A. Ransom. Although attention was called to the discovery in 1877,[2501] the whole circumstances of the case are only now being thoroughly worked out. At that time the section exposed was about 20 feet in depth, of reddish brick-earth with numerous small angular fragments of flint throughout. In places there were seams in which flints were more abundant. With them were a few quartz and quartzite pebbles. Above one seam, about 9 feet from the surface, was a layer of carbonaceous matter. The implements,[2502] which are of various forms, both ovate, like Pl. II., No. 17–19, and pointed, like Pl. I., No. 5–7, are said to occur in the brick-earth, but not in the alluvial beds below. They are mostly ochreous, but some are white. I have a hammer-stone found with them which is made of an almost cylindrical portion of a nodule of flint about 4 1∕4 inches long, truncated at each end; the edges round both ends are much battered. It was probably used in the manufacture of the other implements; a hammer of the same kind was found at Little Thurrock.[2503] In October, 1877, a well was sunk at the bottom of the pit showing—

ft. in.

(_a_) Red loam with a few quartz pebbles and flints, about 4 0

(_b_) White very sandy loam with freshwater shells about 5 6

(_c_) Dark greenish-brown loam with numerous shells and vegetable remains, among them _Bythinia_, _Planorbis_ and _Limnæa_; also elytra of beetles, about 10 6 —————— 20 0

|537|

Mammalian remains are reported to have been found in the argillaceous beds at Hitchin,[2504] including bear, elephant, and rhinoceros.

In Fig. 418A is shown a small shoe-shaped implement from the brick-earth at Hitchin, on which a considerable amount of the crust of the original nodule of flint from which it was made still remains.

At the Folly Pit, about half a mile south and at a lower level, a section was shown in 1877 of about 18 feet of Glacial Drift, with large rounded pebbles of different rocks, false-bedded sands, &c. On an eroded surface of sands and gravels of the Glacial Series was brick-earth extending in the direction of Mr. Ransom’s pit. At one spot white marly sand-like beds, full of freshwater shells, were visible. The brick-earth at Hitchin, like that at Hoxne, seems to have been deposited in what were locally Post-Glacial times.

[Illustration: Fig. 418A.—Hitchin. 1∕2]

A detailed examination of the spot has recently been carried out by Mr. Clement Reid, F.G.S., who finds that the alluvial deposits beneath the palæolithic brick-earth fill a deep channel and contain a temperate flora, including such trees as the oak, ash, cornel, elder, and alder. Towards the margin of the channel, in at least one place, the Chalky Boulder Clay occurs beneath the ancient alluvial and palæolithic strata. The succession corresponds closely with that found at Hoxne.[2505] |538|

At Biggleswade, farther down the valley of the Ivel, a few palæolithic implements have been procured from the railway ballast-pit.

Northwards of Hitchin a flint flake has been found in the gravel of the Ouse at Hartford,[2506] near Huntingdon, together with remains of _Elephas primigenius_ and _Rhinoceros tichorhinus_. I have also a well-shaped ochreous pointed implement (5 inches) found at Abbot’s Ripton, 3 1∕2 miles north of Huntingdon, in 1896, as well as one like Fig. 457 (5 3∕4 inches) from gravel at Chatteris, Cambs.

Proceeding eastward, the next important affluent of the Ouse which is met with, is the Cam, the gravels along the valley of which present in various places characters analogous with those near Bedford. Numerous mammalian remains of the same Quaternary fauna have been found along its course, especially at Barnwell and Chesterton,[2507] near Cambridge, where also land and freshwater shells occur in abundance. I have also found them in a pit near Littlebury, a few miles from Saffron Walden.

From Quendon, Essex, about 5 miles south of Saffron Walden, and in the valley of the Cam, Mr. C. K. Probert, of Newport, Bishop Stortford, obtained a magnificent sharp-pointed implement with the sides curved outwards, 8 inches in length. It lay in sandy drift in a pit about 12 feet deep.

In the publications of the Cambridge Antiquarian Society[2508] is a paper by the late Prof. Chas. C. Babington, F.R.S., “On a flint hammer found near Burwell.” It is described as a pointed implement, very similar to those found at Hoxne and Amiens, as represented in Phil. Trans., 1860, Pl. XIV., 6 and 8. It was not found _in situ_, nor in gravel, but is said to have come from a mill used for cleaning coprolites, where it had been well washed with them. If it be the specimen that I have seen in the museum of the Cambridge Antiquarian Society, I fear it is a forgery. Another worked flint, also of rather uncertain origin, but perfectly genuine, and having all the characteristics of belonging to the River-drift, was found in 1862 on a heap of gravel, near Cambridge, by Mr. W. Whitaker, F.R.S., who kindly placed it in my collection. It is a thick polygonal flake, about 3 inches long and 1 inch broad at the base, tapering to the point, which is broken off. Its surface is stained all over of a deep ochreous colour, its angles are slightly water-worn, and the edges worn away, either by friction among other stones in the gravel, or by use. In the Woodwardian Museum is another flake, apparently of palæolithic date, which was found in gravel near the Cambridge Observatory. The Rev. Osmond Fisher, F.G.S., possesses an implement in form and character much like Fig. 470, from Highfield, Salisbury, which was found on a heap of gravel brought from Chesterton. Other discoveries have confirmed this evidence of the presence of palæolithic implements in the gravels of the valley of the Cam.

Mr. A. F. Griffith[2509] in 1878 described a fine implement from the Barnwell gravels (6 3∕4 inches) in form and size almost identical with |539| Fig. 414. Others have been found in gravel from the Observatory Hill, Cambridge, and from Chesterton. Another tongue-shaped implement from the plateau near Upper Hare Park,[2510] Cambridge, has been found by Mr. M. C. Hughes.

I may add that in the gravel at Barnwell, at a depth of 12 feet, and associated with remains of elephant, rhinoceros, and hippopotamus, was found in 1862, a portion of a rib-bone like that of an elephant, showing at one end “numerous cut surfaces, evidently made with some sharp instrument used by a powerful hand.” I have not seen the specimen, but Mr. H. Seeley, F.R.S.,[2511] who records the fact, has “no doubt that the whittling is as old as the bone.” The _Corbicula fluminalis_, _Hydrobia marginata_, and _Unio rhomboideus_ are among the shells which are found in the River-drift of Barnwell, but are no longer living in England.

I have a number of implements, principally of ovate form, which are said to have been found in the neighbourhood of Bottisham, but I am not sure as to the exact locality. I believe them to have come from gravel-pits about a mile to the north of Six Mile Bottom Station.

In gravel at Kennett Station,[2512] about 5 miles north-east by east of Newmarket, but still in Cambridgeshire, several specimens have been found by Mr. Arthur G. Wright and others.

I have a much-worn flat ovate specimen from Herringswell, three miles to the north of Kentford Station.

Implements occur, though rarely, at the base of the peat in the Fen country, below Cambridge. I have a small ovate specimen (3 1∕4 inches) from Swaffham Fen. It is of black flint with the surface eroded as if a portion of its substance had been dissolved away. A much larger implement (6 inches) from Soham Fen is also black, but its surface is uninjured.

The valley of the Lark, the next river which empties itself into the Ouse, has been much more prolific of implements in its gravels, than that of the Cam. The fact of their occurrence in this valley was first observed by myself, in 1860, in consequence of my finding among the stone antiquities in the collection of a local antiquary—the late Mr. Joseph Warren, of Ixworth—two specimens, which I at once recognized as being of palæolithic types. On inquiry, it appeared that one had been found by a workman in digging gravel at Rampart Hill, Icklingham; and the other by Mr. Warren himself on a heap of gravel by the roadside, which had been dug in the same neighbourhood. The late Sir Joseph Prestwich[2513] and I at once visited Icklingham, and though our search was at the time unsuccessful, yet the instructions given to the workmen soon resulted in their finding numerous implements. The examination of the gravel was at the same time taken up by the late Mr. Henry Prigg (subsequently Trigg), of Bury St. Edmunds, to whose discrimination and energy the discovery of implements in various other localities in Suffolk is due. He brought together a large collection of antiquities, of which the greater part, after his decease, came into my hands. |540|

[Illustration: Fig. 419.—Maynewater Lane, Bury St. Edmunds. 1∕2]

The principal places in the valley of the Lark, where palæolithic implements have been found, are in the neighbourhood of Bury St. Edmunds, Icklingham, and Mildenhall. The first specimen from the River-drift at Bury St. Edmunds was obtained by Mr. Trigg in gravel at a low level, near the ruined Gatehouse of St Saviour’s Hospital, in October, 1862;[2514] since which time numerous other specimens have been discovered, principally through his agency. Several were found in the excavations made for the drainage of the southern part of the town in 1864—one elongated oval implement having been discovered in Botolph’s Lane; and three others, varying in form, in Maynewater Lane, where also a flake was found. That here engraved as Fig. 419 is from this latter locality, and was found at a depth of 14 feet in a bed of loamy, sub-angular gravel, underlying a deposit of fine grey loam 6 feet thick, containing scales of fish, and abundant remains of _Anodonta_ and _Bythinia_. It is now deposited in the Blackmore Museum at Salisbury. Its edges are sharp and unworn, and its colour black, with ochreous spots. Others, since discovered, are of even finer workmanship. One in my collection is a much ruder specimen, though of nearly similar general form, which was found in the South Gate in 1869. Several have been found in Westgate and St. Andrew’s Streets, and in Newton Road. The greatest number of implements found at Bury have, however, come from what is known as the Grindle Pit, a short distance to the south-east of the town, and on the summit and western slope of a tongue of land between the Linnet and the Lark. Some of them occurred in a dark, stiff, rather argillaceous gravel, composed mainly of sub-angular flints, but also containing a small proportion of the pebbles of the older rocks, derived from Glacial |541| deposits. This gravel is from 2 to 3 feet in thickness, and underlies a stratum of red brick-earth from 2 to 6 feet thick, which is again, in places, surmounted by sands and clay with angular flints about 4 feet in thickness, on which the surface soil reposes. This was the section exhibited in 1865, but the beds are very irregular, and the character of the section exposed in the pit varies considerably from time to time, as material is removed. In places the Drift-beds are faulted, as if by the giving way of the subjacent beds.

[Illustration: Fig. 419A.—Grindle Pit, Bury St. Edmunds. 1∕2]

A beautiful and absolutely perfect specimen from this pit is shown in Fig. 419A. It was found in a black vein in the lower loamy bed, on February 4th, 1870. Though the implement has been most skilfully chipped, the edge is not in one plane, but when looked at sideways, shows an ogival curve. The regular contour is partly due to secondary working, but the edge is as sharp as on the day when the instrument was made. Several others of almost the same form, though not quite so delicately fashioned, came from the same pit, and may have been made by the same hands.

I have a fine pointed implement, (5 1∕2 inches), also from the Grindle Pit. Another, ovate, is 7 inches in length.

A remarkably fine palæolithic flake from Thingoe Hill,[2515] Bury St. Edmunds, is shown in Fig. 419B. It is water-worn, and much resembles some from the low-level gravels at Montiers, near Amiens, and Montguillain, near Beauvais. It belongs, of course, to a much earlier period than the mound in, on, or near which it was found.

As already observed, remains of shells, and some scales of fish, were found in the Drift-beds during the drainage works, as also some |542| mammalian remains. They were, however, scarce. Higher up the valley by about three miles, there have been found in a pit at Sicklesmere, remains of _Rhinoceros tichorhinus_ and _Elephas primigenius_; and, in another pit, elephant remains; specimens of all of which are now preserved in the Bury Museum. Mr. Trigg obtained several well-wrought implements from the brick-earth of Sicklesmere, near Nowton, which there overlies the Boulder Clay; and has also found examples in the gravels of the valley of the Kent, another small affluent of the Ouse.

[Illustration: Fig. 419B.—Bury St. Edmunds. 1∕2]

One of these Nowton specimens is shown in Fig. 419C. It is broad and kite-shaped in form and has weathered to a creamy white. In type it approaches Fig. 435, from Santon Downham. Some remarkably fine implements, principally ovate, have been found at Westley, about two miles west of Bury, and at Fornham All Saints, two miles to the north; and I have a pointed one from the Beeches Pit, West Stow, five miles to the north-west, and nearer Icklingham. It was in one of the pits at Westley, eroded in the old chalk surface and filled with loam, that Mr. Trigg discovered portions of a human skull which he described to the Anthropological Institute.[2516] In other pits at |543| the same spot were molars of _Elephas primigenius_, and the chopper-like instrument shown in Fig. 419D.

[Illustration: Fig. 419C.—Nowton, near Bury St. Edmunds. 1∕2]

In the valley of the Lark, about seven miles down from Bury, lies the village of Icklingham, in the neighbourhood of which numerous remains belonging to the Roman and Saxon Periods have been found, but where also relics belonging to both the Neolithic and Palæolithic Periods abound. Many of the latter have been discovered in the gravel of Rampart Hill, about a mile to the south-east of Icklingham, and nearer to Bury; but still more numerous specimens have now for many years also been found in the gravel at Warren Hill—sometimes termed the Three Hills—about two miles on the other side of Icklingham, and midway between that place and Mildenhall. A section across the valley of the Lark, near Icklingham, has been given by Sir Joseph Prestwich.[2517] The valley, which is excavated in the chalk, is in its lower part covered by recent alluvial deposits, but on the slopes of its northern side, the chalk is covered with sands and gravels belonging to the Glacial Series, which are again overlain by the Boulder Clay. The gravel both at Rampart Hill and Warren Hill is of a different character from that belonging to the Glacial Series, though of course containing a number of the silicious pebbles from the conglomerate beds of the New Red Sandstone, and other pebbles of the older rocks derived from the Glacial Drift. It is for the most part composed of sub-angular flints in an ochreous sandy matrix, and is spread out in irregular beds interstratified with seams of sand. At Warren Hill there are great numbers of quartzite pebbles, as well as |544| very many formed from rolled chalk, mixed with the other constituents. These are less abundant in the upper part of the deposit, which is there of considerable thickness. I am not aware of the exact levels having been taken at either place, but the surface of the ground is probably from 40 to 50 feet above the level of the river. The gravel beds are in places as much as 14 or 15 feet in thickness. Mammalian remains are scarce, but teeth and portions of tusk of _Elephas primigenius_ have been found at Rampart Hill, and the core of the horn of an ox, and teeth of horse, and bones and teeth of elephant, at Warren Hill.

[Illustration: Fig. 419D.—Westley, near Bury St. Edmunds. 1∕2]

Up to the present time the search for remains of testacea in these beds has proved unsuccessful.

Not only have the worked flints been discovered in considerable numbers, but Canon Greenwell, F.R.S., has found in the gravel at Warren Hill, several quartzite pebbles bearing evident marks of |545| abrasion and bruising at the ends, such as may have resulted from their having been in use as hammer-stones, either for chipping out the flint implements or for other purposes. He also obtained an ovate lanceolate implement from this spot, 4 3∕4 inches in length, and formed from a quartzite pebble, the original surface of which is still preserved over nearly the whole extent of one of the faces.

Examples of the Icklingham implements are given in Figs. 420 to 424.

[Illustration: Fig. 420.—Rampart Hill, Icklingham. 1∕2]

The finer of the two, of which mention has already been made as having formed part of the collection of the late Mr. Warren, of Ixworth, is now in my own, and is shown in Fig. 420. It is more convex on one face than the other, and a portion of the butt presents an almost scraper-like appearance. The angles formed by the facets are slightly worn, and the surface of the flint has been much altered in character, having become nearly white, and quite lustrous. This alteration in structure is almost universal with the Icklingham implements, though in many cases they are ochreous instead of white, and not unfrequently the discoloration is only partial, giving them a dappled appearance. In many specimens the angles are much water-worn.

The original of Fig. 421 is in the Blackmore Museum, and is of |546| dark brown lustrous flint, almost equally convex on both faces, and of very regular elliptical form. In most cases the outline approximates more to that of Fig. 467. These thin, flattened, oval, and almond-shaped, or ovate, implements seem, as Mr. Trigg has pointed out, to predominate at Icklingham. Those of oval form are especially abundant at Warren Hill.

[Illustration: Fig. 421.—Icklingham. 1∕2]

Many of ruder character, however, also occur, one of which, in my own collection, is shown in Fig. 422. It approaches more nearly in form to some of the roughly chipped instruments of the Surface period, such as Fig. 16, than do most of the implements from the River-drift.

[Illustration: Fig. 422.—Icklingham. 1∕2]

One of the finest specimens hitherto found in this country is that shown in Fig. 423, from the original in the Blackmore Museum. It is of dark ochreous flint, with the surface considerably decomposed, and the angles but little worn. In the same collection is another Icklingham specimen, in form like that from Thetford, Fig. 427, but 9 inches long and 4 1∕2 wide.

Besides the more finished implements, a few flakes occur in the Icklingham gravels. Some of these have been chipped all round the periphery by blows administered on the flat face, thus producing a bevelled edge. One such, from Warren Hill, in my own collection, somewhat resembles the implement from Reculver, Fig. 461. It is, however, narrower |547| in its proportions, being 4 1∕2 inches long and 2 3∕8 broad. It has been formed from an external flake, and has been carefully trimmed all round into an almost perfect oval form, the butt alone having been left untrimmed for about half-an-inch in width. A small part of the other rounded and scraper-like end has been broken off in ancient times. Others are wider in their proportions though not so symmetrically worked. The trimmed flake, shown in Fig. 424, is in my own collection, and at its rounded end is very scraper-like in character. A very large flake, rounded into a broad scraper, and about 5 inches in diameter, was found by myself at Warren Hill, and is now in the Christy Collection. |548|

[Illustration: Fig. 423.—Icklingham.]

Three-quarters of a mile to the north of the Warren Hill pits, and on the same ridge, but at a rather higher level, is High or Warren Lodge, distant about two miles from Mildenhall. To the south of this house, and by the side of the Thetford road, is a small pit on the slope of the hill, where, in the process of digging clay for brick-making, a considerable number of worked flints have been obtained, many of which passed into the collection formed by Canon Greenwell, who has furnished me with particulars of the discovery. I have also visited the spot. The clay or brick-earth is of a reddish hue, and rests upon a chalky Boulder Clay, which is exposed farther up the hill. It ranges in thickness from about 4 to 6 feet; and above it are sands and gravel, the latter varying in thickness from about 2 to 6 feet, and of much the same character as that of the Warren Hill pits, but containing far less chalk. The sand occasionally comes down in pipes or pockets into the clay, and some of the worked flints occur in it, as well as in the clay. Many of these are merely roughly-chipped splinters, but several well-wrought forms have also been found.

[Illustration: Fig. 424.—Icklingham. 1∕2]

[Illustration: Fig. 425.—High Lodge. 1∕2]

Among them is an oval implement of a common River-drift type, 4 1∕2 inches long, which, with three or four others of the same kind, was found in the upper sands and gravel. From the clay itself are several large side-scrapers, or choppers, made from broad flakes, 4 or 5 inches long, and in form similar to the specimen from Santon Downham, Fig. 437, and of the same character as the implements from the cave of Le Moustier.[2518] Besides these, there are several other large flakes worked along the edge into side-scrapers, and presenting a Le Moustier form.[2519] Another is like that from Thetford, Fig. 431, and worked along both edges. Even external flakes have been utilized; one of these, 4 inches long, having been neatly worked at one end |549| into a segmental edge. Another large implement, 5 1∕2 inches long and 3 inches broad, is ovate-lanceolate in form, flat on one face, and worked to a sharp edge all round. Several others have been found of the same type. I have a considerable number from the Trigg collection.

One of the most beautifully formed of these implements from High Lodge Hill is shown in Fig. 425. It has been made from a broad, flat truncated flake, with a well-marked cone of percussion. The two sides have been carefully trimmed to a curved edge, by secondary chipping, and the edge itself has been finished by a subsequent process of finer chipping. The angles where the truncated chisel-like end joins the sides have also been retouched, but a portion of the sharp edge is left in its original condition. The edge formed by the outer face of the flake with its flat butt-end has also been re-chipped, and in one place appears to have been bruised by an unskilful blow. The workmanship generally is of a finer and neater character than is usual on the implements found in the river gravels. In form and character this instrument is remarkably similar to some of those found in the cave of Le Moustier in the Dordogne.

[Illustration: Fig. 426.—High Lodge. 1∕1]

[Illustration: Fig. 426A.—High Lodge. 1∕2]

Others, again, resemble the scrapers from the surface and the caves. One of these is engraved full size in Fig. 426. The edge is more acute than usual with scrapers, perhaps in consequence of the curvature of the inner face of the flake from which it was made.

Another example with a straight terminal edge at an angle of 80° to the side is shown on the scale of one half in Fig. 426A.

The flint of the High Lodge implements is but little altered in character, but has either remained black or has been stained of a deep brown; the angles and edges being still as sharp as the day when they were formed. In this respect they resemble the worked flints from the brick-earth of Hoxne. Those from the brick-earth of the valley of the Somme are usually quite white and porcellanous. |550|

I have seen fragments of a molar of _Elephas_, probably _primigenius_, from the clay at this spot, and also a bone of a ruminant, probably _Cervus megaceros_.

* * * * *

As will subsequently be seen, there appears some reason for believing that at a remote period, the River Lark took a northerly, instead of a north-westerly, course from the neighbourhood of Mildenhall, and thus joined the Little Ouse instead of the Ouse itself; so that this pit may possibly be connected with the old channel of the stream. On the slope of the hill to the east of Eriswell is gravel of much the same character as that at Warren Hill, but in which as yet few implements have been found. I have, however, one of ovate form from Holywell Row, near Eriswell, and another, not unlike Fig. 471, from the surface at Cardwell, about three miles farther north. To the east of Lakenheath, still farther to the north, is an isolated hill, near Maid’s Cross, capped with gravel, in which flint implements have been found. It will be best to describe this spot when treating of the discoveries that have been made in the valley of the Little Ouse.

The source of this stream and that of the Waveney may be regarded as one, inasmuch as both take their rise in a fen crossed by the road at Lopham Ford; the one river running east, and the other west, of the road. By the time it reaches Thetford, however, a distance of about 12 miles, the Little Ouse has been joined by the Ixworth stream and the Thet, so that the area of ground drained by it is considerably more than would at first sight appear probable, being upwards of 200 square miles. With the exception of a broad flint flake, found by Mr. Trigg at Santon Downham,[2520] the first discovery of flint implements in the gravels of the Little Ouse was made in 1865 at Redhill, near Thetford, by a labourer from Icklingham, who had been trained to search for implements in the gravel pits in his own parish. These specimens he brought to Mr. Trigg, who subsequently obtained others at Whitehill, farther down the valley on the same—or Norfolk—side of the river; and on my visiting the spot with him in December, 1865, Mr. Trigg found in my presence a well-formed pointed implement in some gravel at Santon Downham, on the opposite—or Suffolk—side. Since then the discoveries have extended farther down the valley, and numerous implements have been found at several localities in the neighbourhood of Brandon, and at Shrub Hill, in the parish of Feltwell, Norfolk. |551|

In June, 1866,[2521] the late Mr. J. W. Flower, F.G.S., who had long carried on investigations in the district, communicated a paper to the Geological Society on the subject of the discoveries at Thetford, and again in April, 1869,[2522] a second paper on the discoveries of flint implements in Norfolk and Suffolk, with some observations on the theories accounting for their distribution, on which I shall have to make some comments hereafter.

The highest point up the valley of the Little Ouse at which, up to the present time, flint implements have been discovered in the gravel on its slopes, is Redhill, on the Norfolk side of the river, about a mile north-west of Thetford. The gravel at this place is coarse in character, and consists principally of sub-angular flints, some of large size, mixed with a few pebbles derived from beds of the Glacial series, and deposited in a red sandy matrix. It forms a terrace running nearly parallel with the present stream, and ranging from about 12 feet to nearly 40 feet above its level. In places, the gravel is from 12 to 16 feet in thickness,[2523] the largest stones, as usual, occurring towards its base, in which part of the gravel the greater number, but by no means all, of the flint implements occur, as some are dispersed throughout the whole thickness of the mass. Occasionally they have been found in pipes of gravel, let down into the chalk by means of water charged with carbonic acid eroding its upper surface. Sandy seams[2524] are, as usual, interbedded with the gravel; and in one of these, about 10 feet below the surface, I found shells of _Helix_, _Bythinia_, _Cyclas_, _Pisidium_, _Ancylus_, and _Succinea_. Of mammalian remains, those of _Elephas primigenius_, ox, horse, and stag have occurred.

* * * * *

A very large number of implements have been found in the gravel at Redhill, of which specimens exist in the Christy Collection, the Blackmore Museum, and in numerous private collections.[2525] Those selected for engraving here, are all in my own possession. |552|

[Illustration: Fig. 427.—Redhill, Thetford. 1∕2]

Fig. 427 shows a remarkably fine specimen, stained all over of a deep ochreous red, though slightly mottled, owing to the original structure of the flint from which it was chipped. The angles are to a small extent waterworn. On what is in the figure the left side of the base, a portion of the original crust of the flint has been left, so as to form a protuberance at that part, instead of the edge being continued all round the instrument. This protuberance is well adapted to fit into the hand, like that of the Picts’ knife, described at page 345, so that this may have been a cutting tool intended to be grasped. I have another specimen of nearly the same size, and with the same protuberance, from Santon Downham, and one of the implements from Southampton presents the same feature, which, indeed, is not unusual. A flat surface is frequently left on the sides of the ovate |553| implements in or about the same position. This flat space has been referred to by the late Mr. Flower,[2526] who considered it intended to receive the thumb of the right hand, and not to go against the palm or the fore-finger, as suggested by myself long ago.[2527]

[Illustration: Fig. 428.—Redhill, Thetford. 1∕2]

Fig. 428 represents another singularly fine specimen of a very uncommon form, it being much more acutely pointed than usual. It is stained all over of a deep ochreous colour, and its angles are still sharp. It has been boldly but symmetrically chipped, and has a thick, heavy butt, well adapted for being held in the hand. As is the case with almost all these implements, an analogous form has been found in the |554| gravels of the valley of the Somme. The magnificent implement from the gravel of Vaudricourt, near Béthune, which was exhibited at Paris in 1867, was also much of this type. Its length is 10 1∕4 inches; that of the Thetford specimen being 8 1∕2 inches. It would be an endless task to attempt to engrave all the varieties of form found at this place, but Mr. Trigg is correct in his remark as to the comparative absence of the flat oval form with a cutting edge all round. The most common type here is the ovate-lanceolate, like Pl. I., Fig. 5, rather thick towards the butt-end. Mr. Flower has figured a fine lanceolate specimen, and one of more ovate form from this place.[2528]

[Illustration: Fig. 429.—Redhill, Thetford. 1∕2]

The finely-wrought symmetrical specimens are rarer at Redhill than at Santon Downham; but here, as elsewhere in this district, implements are occasionally found of what has been aptly termed the shoe-shaped type, of which an example is shown in Fig. 429. The form is flat on one face, the other being brought to a central ridge rising towards the butt, which is usually rounded and obtusely truncated. In this specimen the greater part of the butt-end or heel of the shoe exhibits the original crust of the nodule of flint from which the |555| implement was formed. The point, which is usually brought to a semicircular sharp edge, has been broken in old times either by use or by attrition in the gravel. Most of these shoe-shaped instruments have been formed from large spalls of flint, so that the flat face has been the result of a single blow, though occasionally retouched by subsequent chipping.

[Illustration: Fig. 430.—Redhill, Thetford. 1∕2]

The implement shown in Fig. 430 is of this character, but is too thin, in proportion to its size, to represent the typical shoe-shape. It has been formed from a large external flake, the bulb of percussion being at the lower left-hand corner of the figure, but on the opposite face to that shown. The flake has been trimmed into shape by chipping along the edges on both faces, so that not above half of the original inner face remains free from secondary working. The surface is, as usual, stained of a rich ochreous brown.

[Illustration: Fig. 431.—Redhill, Thetford. 1∕2]

A considerable number of flint flakes of various sizes and shapes have been found at Redhill, many of them showing signs of use and wear on their edges, and some being worked to a quadrant of a circle or more, at the point, so as to make them almost assume the form of scrapers. I have one external flake in which is worked a curved recess, as if by scraping some hard cylindrical object, such as a round bone. The flake engraved as Fig. 431 was found by myself in December, 1865, and has had both its edges retouched by secondary chipping. The edge thus produced seems to have been worn away by use. I have a rather larger flake, presenting precisely the same characteristics, from the valley gravel of the Somme, at Porte Marcadé, Abbeville.

A little lower down the river, and on the same side as Redhill, is |556| the spot to which the name of Whitehall has been given by Mr. Trigg. The gravel is composed of similar materials to that at Redhill, of which it may be said to form a continuation, except that the matrix is whiter. Mr. Trigg has informed me that beneath the gravel are beds of red sand, and that at one time, a section was exposed of 26 feet in depth. Of late, the gravel at this spot has been but little worked, and but few implements have been found in it.

Mr. Trigg[2529] records having obtained three flint implements from this place, one of which, at present in the Blackmore Museum at Salisbury, is engraved as Fig. 432. Its surface has become white and decomposed, and is partially covered by an incrustation of carbonate of lime. A part of the edge, towards the point, on the right side of the figure, appears to be worn away by use.

Remains of _Elephas primigenius_ and horse have been found here, but no land or freshwater shells.

Between Whitehill and Santon Downham, but on the Suffolk slope of the valley, a considerable quantity of gravel has been dug on Thetford Warren. Though the gravel is of much the same character as at Redhill, no implements appear to have been found in it.

[Illustration: Fig. 432.—Whitehill, Thetford. 1∕2]

About three miles north-west of Thetford, and also on the Suffolk side of the Little Ouse, is Santon Downham Warren, on the slope of which towards the river, is a considerable expanse of gravelly beds, which have been largely excavated for road-making purposes. On the sketch map given by Mr. Flower,[2530] this place is erroneously called Whitehill. As has been already stated, the first implement from this spot was discovered by Mr. Trigg, when in my company, in 1865. Since that time, it has produced, at a moderate estimate, several hundred specimens, some of them affording the finest instances of the skill of the Palæolithic Period which have been found in Britain, or indeed elsewhere. The gravel is at a somewhat higher level above the river than that at Redhill, but resembles it in character. It contains, besides flints, a few of the quartzite pebbles of the New Red conglomerate, which have been derived from the Glacial beds and Boulder Clay which cap the chalk hills on either side of the river. The gravel is of considerable thickness, so much so that in places, caves of sufficient magnitude to allow of a man standing inside, have been formed within it, in consequence of the lower beds being let down into the |557| chalk, through its erosion by water charged with carbonic acid. The same phenomenon has been observed at Bromehill, the spot next to be mentioned; and some connection was at one time supposed to exist between these cavities and the implements often found in and near them. I think, however, that the explanation[2531] that I have elsewhere given of their origin will be deemed satisfactory. No testaceous remains have been found here, and mammalian remains are very scarce.

Among the implements from Santon Downham, the almond-shaped[2532] type seems to predominate, though other forms are also found.

[Illustration: Fig. 433.—Santon Downham. 1∕2]

A very elegant pointed specimen, in my own collection, is shown in Fig. 433. It is chipped with great skill, and brought to a fine point, the butt-end being comparatively blunt, so that it may have been used in the hand without being in any way hafted. At the shoulder, shown in the side-view, a part of the original crust of the flint is left, and small portions are also left on the other face. In form, this implement curiously resembles some of those from Hoxne, and that from Gray’s |558| Inn Lane (Fig. 451). Like many of the implements from the gravel, it is cracked in various directions, apparently from inward expansion, and would break up into fragments with a slight blow. A very sharp point, such as that presented by this specimen, is not uncommonly met with in implements found at Santon Downham.

[Illustration: Fig. 434.—Santon Downham. 1∕2]

The original of Fig. 434 is also in my own collection, and is cracked in a similar manner. It is uniformly stained of a light buff colour, as are many of the implements from this spot, and has dendritic markings upon it, and in places, particles of ferruginous sand adhering to the surface. It is fairly symmetrical in contour, with an edge all round, which is somewhat blunted at what is the base in the figure. This edge, however, is not in one plane, but considerably curved, so that when seen sideways it forms an ogee sweep, even more distinctly than appears from the figure. I have other implements of the same and of more pointed forms, with similarly curved edges, both from France, and other parts of England, but whether this curvature was intentional, it is impossible to say. In some cases it is so marked that it can hardly be the result of accident, and the curve is so far as I have observed, almost without exception Ƨ, and not S. If not intentional, the form may be the result of all the blows by which the implement was finally chipped out, having been given on the one face, on one side, and on the opposite face on the other.

Fig. 435 represents an implement of porcellanous, slightly ochreous |559| flint, found at that place, and now in the Fitch collection at Norwich. The late Mr. Robert Fitch, F.S.A., kindly allowed me to engrave it, as well as the specimen next to be described. Implements of this broad, ovate-lanceolate form are extremely uncommon, and this is a remarkably symmetrical specimen, of good workmanship, and almost equally convex on the two faces. A few implements, almost circular in outline, have been found at this spot.

Another specimen from Nowton, Fig. 419C, shows almost the same form. In the Toulouse Museum is an implement (5 inches) in flint from Clermont, about 18 miles south of that town, found with remains of mammoth and reindeer.

[Illustration: Fig. 435.—Santon Downham. 1∕2]

The original of Fig. 436 presents an example of another rare form, almost crescent-like in character. There is frequently a slight want of symmetry between the two sides of the ordinary ovate implements, which gives them a tendency to assume this form, but I have never seen it so fully developed as in some of the implements from Santon Downham.

Another somewhat uncommon form is shown in Fig. 437, the original of which, with several others, was presented to the Christy Collection by the late Rev. W. W. Poley. It has been formed from a large broad flake, the flat face of which is not shown in the figure, and has been chipped to a bevelled segmental edge, so that it assumes the form of a ‘broad’ or ‘side’ scraper, resembling in character some of the implements from the cave of Le Moustier in the Dordogne.

In the Greenwell Collection is a thick flake from Santon Downham, 4 1∕4 inches long and 2 1∕4 inches wide, trimmed at the butt-end to a semicircular scraper-like edge.

Viewed as a whole, the implements from Santon Downham present a higher degree of finish, and a greater skill in chipping the required forms out of flint, than those found in the gravels of any other part |560| of the valley of the Little Ouse, or, it may perhaps be added, of England or France.

Following the course of the river, the next spot at which flint implements have been found in the gravel, is a pit known as the Bromehill or Broomhill Pit, in the parish of Weeting, and on the Norfolk side of the Little Ouse, about a mile and a quarter east of Brandon. The gravel here is at a lower level than that at Santon Downham, or even Redhill, its base not being more than six or eight feet above the river, to which it is close.

[Illustration: Fig. 436.—Santon Downham. 1∕2]

The late Mr. Flower[2533] has described the spot, but his description of the section, and of the position in which the implements are found, does not completely coincide with mine. On the occasion of one of my visits to this pit, in July,[2534] 1868, in company with him, the section exposed was 24 feet in height, from the chalk at its base to the superficial soil at the summit. The upper part of the section showed |561| sand, with a few gravelly seams, and from 8 to 10 feet in thickness; at the base of this, a dark ferruginous band, a few inches in thickness; then some 8 or 9 feet of ochreous gravel, with a red sandy matrix, which was separated by a band of grey sand from the lower beds of gravel, which contained a very large percentage of rolled chalk and seams of chalky sand. Below the chalky gravel, ferruginous beds also sometimes occur, containing large blocks of flint. In the chalky gravel (the base of which is but a few feet above the level of the river) implements are rarely found, but what there are, are usually black. In the upper gravel they are more abundant, and ochreous in tint. It was in this gravel that I had the opportunity of examining one of the cavities already mentioned; and in the pipe formed through the more chalky gravel into which a part of the upper bed had been let down. I witnessed the finding of a pointed flint implement. In character, the implements found at this spot much resemble those from Redhill. They are, however, usually more rolled and waterworn. There are but few pebbles from the Glacial Beds in the gravel, but among these Canon Greenwell has found one of quartzite, with the ends battered as if from its having been used as a hammer-stone.

[Illustration: Fig. 437.—Santon Downham.]

Remains of _Elephas primigenius_, and of horse, have been found here, but as yet no land or freshwater shells.

The only specimen from this spot which I have thought it worth while to engrave, is shown in Fig. 438. It presents a much narrower form than is usual among the River-drift implements, and in outline closely approximates to some of the neolithic rough-hewn celts. It is, |562| however, much more convex on one face than on the other, and presents what are apparently signs of wear along both the sides and the ends, the broader of which is somewhat gouge-like in character.

In addition to the pit in the bluff facing the river, there is another in the same gravel, but on the other side of the railway, which has been here cut through the Drift deposits. In this also implements have been found.

The next locality to be mentioned is on the Suffolk side of the river, about two miles S.W. of Brandon Station. This spot has already been described by Mr. Flower,[2535] under the name of Gravel Hill, Brandon; it is also known as Brandon Down, or Brandon Field; and from the contiguity of one of the pits to Brick-kiln Farm, Wangford, some specimens from this place have been labelled as found at Wangford.

[Illustration: Fig. 438.—Bromehill, Brandon. 1∕2]

The gravel is worked on both sides of the point of a high ridge of land, nearly at right angles to the course of the river, and about a mile distant from it. The summit of the ridge between two of the pits was found by Mr. Flower to be 91 feet above the level of the river at its nearest point. The surface of the ground where gravel has been dug is lower only by a few feet, and the beds possibly extend through the ridge. Between the ridge and the higher land to the S.W. a valley intervenes, along which the road to Mildenhall passes, so that the hill on which the gravel reposes is isolated. The gravel is usually not more than 10 feet in thickness, but often less, and it rests in some places immediately on the chalk. It contains a very large proportion of quartzite pebbles from the New Red Conglomerate, in some spots more than 50 per cent. of the whole, as well as fragments of jasper, clay-slate, quartz, greenstone and limestone; all derived from Glacial Beds, from which also many of the flints appear to have come. The matrix is of coarse red sand, and there is usually some thickness of sand above the gravel. In some few places there are beds formed almost exclusively of the quartzite pebbles; but Mr. Flower’s estimate of their forming three fourths of the whole mass of gravel is, I believe, very far in excess.

Flint implements have been found here in considerable numbers—at all events, many hundreds. I have myself found several, and many flakes, but all in gravel already dug and not _in situ_. They appear to occur at all depths; but, as usual, for the most part, near |563| the base, and occasionally resting on the chalk. A large proportion of them are very rude, though they were evidently chipped into shape for some particular purpose, and approximate to the more symmetrical specimens in general form. It seems hardly worth while to figure any of these roughly chipped implements, the character of which was no doubt in some measure determined by the shape of the original blocks of flint from which they were fashioned.

[Illustration: Fig. 439.—Gravel Hill, Brandon. 1∕2]

Mixed with these ruder tools or weapons, are some of much higher design and finish. Mr. Flower had some remarkably beautiful specimens, in form much like Fig. 472, from Milford Hill, two of which he bequeathed to me. One of these is rather more than 9 inches long and 4 1∕2 inches broad. Some of the flattened oval implements, such as are common at Icklingham, occur also at Gravel Hill. I have one approaching the circular form, the length being 3 1∕4 inches and the breadth 3 1∕8. Those which I have selected for engraving are for the most part in my own collection. Fig. 439 shows an unusually thick pointed specimen of dark flint, with ochreous stains in places. This implement has been dexterously made from a nodule of flint, |564| the original outer skin of which is visible along the greater part of the ridge of one of the faces. It has also been left on part of the butt, which, though presenting some rather sharp angles, may have been intended to be held in the hand.

[Illustration: Fig. 440.—Gravel Hill, Brandon. 1∕2]

I am not quite sure as to the locality along the course of the Little Ouse from which the implement shown in Fig. 440 was obtained by Mr. Flower, to whom it belonged, but it probably came from Gravel Hill. It presents the peculiarity of being almost as much pointed at one end as at the other. The depression in the centre is the result of a large flake having been removed, and is probably accidental. Though pointed at both ends, it seems probable that only one was intended for use, as a small flat surface has been left at the other end, which unfits it for cutting or piercing.

[Illustration: Fig. 441.—Gravel Hill, Brandon. 1∕2]

Flakes and spalls of flint are abundant in the gravel, though not often noticed by the workmen. That shown in Fig. 441 was found by myself near |565| Brick-kiln Farm. Except that the surface has undergone more decomposition than is usual with flakes of the Neolithic Period, and that it bears upon it some of those bright shining specks, so common on flints from the gravel, there is nothing to distinguish it from one of much more modern date. These bright or polished spots, which are very minute, seem to indicate points of contact with other stones, and the lustre upon them is probably due in part to pressure and in part to friction. They are most apparent on dark-coloured flint, and afford one of the tests of the authenticity of a worked flint professing to belong to the River-drift Period.

[Illustration: Fig. 442.—Gravel Hill, Brandon. 1∕2]

One of the most interesting features at Gravel Hill is that there, for the first time, were found cutting stone implements of the Palæolithic Period formed of other materials than flint, chert, or quartzite. That shown in Fig. 442, though so identical in form with many of the |566| implements of flint, is formed of felstone, no doubt derived either from the Boulder Clay or from some other of the Glacial Beds. One face appears to show a considerable portion of the original surface of the block of stone from which the instrument was fashioned, but the whole surface is now somewhat decomposed, so much so, that it is difficult to determine with certainty the nature of the material, which by some has been regarded as diorite rather than felstone. One face has been carefully chipped, the flakes having been removed in much the same manner as if the substance wrought had been flint. At one part of the other face there is a considerable shoulder between the central ridge and the edge near the butt, where, owing to the ‘grain’ of the stone, the flakes have run in and not come off kindly. The angles and edges are slightly rounded.

Even the quartzite pebbles so abundant in this neighbourhood, were occasionally utilized instead of flint. Mr. Flower obtained two pointed instruments manufactured from such pebbles, one of which he bequeathed to me. Lord Northesk had another well-formed ovate specimen. Another has already been mentioned as having been found near Icklingham. Another instrument, of a different form, was found by myself in the gravel near Brick-kiln Farm, and is represented in Fig. 443. It is a broad flake, having a well-marked cone of percussion on the flat face. The other face shows, over nearly its whole extent, the original surface of the quartzite pebble from which it has been formed. It has, however, had a portion removed on one side of the cone, apparently to produce a symmetrical form; and the whole of the edge at the broad end of the flake has been trimmed by chipping from the flat face, so as to produce a bevelled edge, which is now somewhat rounded, either by wear in the gravel or by use. In character this implement is like those from Santon Downham and Highbury (Figs. 437 and 453), or the side-scrapers from the cave of Le Moustier.

[Illustration: Fig. 443.—Gravel Hill, Brandon. 1∕2]

* * * * *

On the opposite side of Wangford Fen, rather more than 2 1∕2 miles S.W. of Gravel Hill, and 3∕4 mile E. of Lakenheath, close to Maid’s Cross, is an isolated hill, about three miles distant from the Little Ouse, locally known as the Broom, but distinguished on the old Ordnance Map by the words, “The Old Churchyard.” The spot has been described by Mr. Flower,[2536] with whom I have examined it. The greater part of the hill is capped with gravel, in places |567| from 8 to 10 feet thick, and of much the same character as that at Gravel Hill, but less ferruginous, and not containing so many quartzite pebbles. The beds here have not been excavated to the same extent as those near Brandon, the gravel being only dug for the repairs of the parish roads; but several well-fashioned implements have been found in them, mostly of pointed form.