a lower level, and cut off from the upper gravels by an outcrop of London Clay, is a wide terrace of alluvial deposits at an average height of about 20 feet above high-water mark, and a lower terrace still is to be found in the immediate neighbourhood of the river. General Pitt Rivers's researches in the mid-terrace beds of gravel and brick-earth have not produced any implements of the River-drift types, but he has obtained animal remains which were identified by the late Mr. G. Busk, F.R.S., as those of Elephas primigenius, Rhinoceros hemitœchus, Hippopotamus major, Bos primigenius, Bison priscus, Cervus tarandus, and other species of deer. They occur invariably at the base of the gravel 12 or 13 feet from the surface. The late Mr. Thomas Belt, F.G.S.,[1] has speculated on the age and character of the Acton deposits.
Mr. J. Allen Brown, F.G.S.,[2] has diligently continued these researches, and in laminated clay, 200 feet above O.D. at the Mount, Ealing, has found an ochreous flake trimmed at the edge. At Creffield Road, Acton,[3] Middlesex, he has discovered another "Palæolithic floor," having found more than 600 flakes and implements in an area of not more than 40 feet square. Besides implements from Acton and Ealing up to 130 feet above O.D. he has described specimens from East Sheen, on the other side of the Thames, and Hanwell,[4] Iver, Gunnersbury, Kew, Turnham Green, and Dawley, near West Drayton. An ovate implement from Dawley is of felsite. He has also described implements found at Southall[5] associated with remains of Elephas primigenius. A pointed specimen from Southall is made of quartzite. At Hounslow[6] also implements have been found. It is possible that the gravels at West Drayton belong to the valley of the Colne rather than to that of the Thames, as also those at Hillingdon, where in the Town-pit, 180 feet above O.D., Mr. Brown has found palæolithic implements.
Farther west, at Langley and at Burnham, implements have been found in the gravels. One from Burnham was given to me by Mr. E. Sawyer. He has also found a broad-pointed implement at Cookham, near Maidenhead. They have likewise been discovered at Ruscombe,[7] Taplow,[8] Maidenhead, and Marlow. A very broad-pointed implement (512 inches) found in high-level gravel at Cookham, Maidenhead, has been shown to me by Mr. E. Sawyer. In my own collection are specimens from the majority of the other localities here enumerated. In form and character they approximate so closely to those from similar deposits elsewhere that it seems needless to figure any of them.
Higher up the river Thames, the next important discoveries to recite are those which have been made in and near Reading by Dr. Joseph Stevens. At Grovelands,[9] about 80 feet above the level of the- ↑ Quar. Journ. of Science, vol. viii., 1878, p. 316.
- ↑ Q. J. G. S., vol. xlii., 1886, p. 197. "Palæolithic Man in N.W. Middlesex," London, 1887. Nature, vol. xxxv., p. 555. Proc. Geol. Assoc., June 18, 1887, vol. x., 1888, p. 172. Trans. Middlesex Nat. Hist. Soc., Feb. 12, 1889, Whitaker, "Geol. of Lond.," p. 308.
- ↑ Proc. S. A., 2nd S., vol. xi. p. 211.
- ↑ Journ. Anth. Inst., vol. ix. p. 316; 1881, p. 1. Proc. Geol. Assoc., vol. xiv., p. 153.
- ↑ Proc. Geol. Assoc., vol. x., 1888, p. 361.
- ↑ "Man the Prim. Savage," p. 241. Nature, vol. xxvi. p. 293; xxviii. p. 617.
- ↑ Tr. Berks. Archæol. and Archit. Soc., vol. ii., 1896, pp. 16, 39, 43.
- ↑ "Pal. Man in N.W. Middlesex, p. 31.
- ↑ Journ. Arch. Assoc., vol. xxxvii. pp. 1, 79. Proc. Geol. Assoc., vol. viii. p. 348. Tr. Berks. A. and A. Soc., 1882.
