within a few feet of the surface. As usual in the Upper Chalk, the flint is disposed in layers, which differ in quality, while maintaining the same character over considerable areas. It may be remarked that, as Sir W. Fowler has well pointed out,[1] Brandon, "though situated in a bleak and barren district, has evidently been a place of considerable resort from a very remote period—a circumstance which can only be attributed to the abundance and good quality of the flint found there." Palæolithic implements abound in the drift gravels; the surface is strewn with flint flakes and fragments of flint implements, and at the present time it is the only place in England where gun-flints are still made. For this purpose, one particular layer of flint is found to be peculiarly well adapted, on account of its hardness and fineness of grain, while another layer, less suitable for gun-flints, is known as "wall-stone," being much used for building purposes. Now it is interesting to find that, even in very early times, the merits of the gun-flint layer were well known and appreciated; for although there is abundance of flint on the surface, the ancient flint-men sank their shafts down past the layer of "wall-stone," which occurs at a depth of 1912 feet, to the gun-flint layer, which at the spot in question is 39 feet deep, although about a mile to the south-west, where it is now worked, it is much nearer the surface.
At present the workmen excavate the chalk both above and below the layer of flint; but in the old galleries, perhaps from the greater difficulty of raising the material, the chalk below the flint-bed was in no case removed. The implements used in making these excavations were deers' horns; the brow tine being used as a pick, and the others removed. Thus treated, a deer's horn closely resembles in form a modern pick, but of course it is subject to rapid wear by use, which accounts for the large numbers of worn-out implements found by Canon Greenwell among the rubbish.
In one case the roof of a passage had given way. On
- ↑ Trans. Ethn. Soc., 1870, p. 437.
