256 REPORT ON THE DENEHOLE EXPLORATION
The reporters have pleasure in returning thanks to Mr. Biddell (agent to the
owner) for full permission to work in the Wood ; to Mr. H. A. Cole, Mr. R. M.
Christy, and Mr. B. G. Cole for valuable assistance afforded during our work ; to
Mr. Vellecott for kind offer of storage for tackle, etc., in his barns; to Messrs.
Brooks, Shoobridge and Co. for loan of tackle and other assistance ; and to Mr.
Shipman, contractor, of Grays, who acted as a kind of foreman, etc. Also to Mr.
Franks and Mr. Read, of the British Museum, and Mr. E. T. Newton
and Mr. Rudler, of the Museum of Practical Geology, for kind assistance
in determining the age and character of the various objects found during our
exploration. They have also to acknowledge the kind efforts of Mr. W. Greatheed
to photograph the interiors of some of the Deneholes ; the pictures were more suc-
cessful than any before taken.
(C) EXPLANATION OF THE PLATES.
Plate III.—Map of Hangman's Wood, based upon portions of the Ordnance
maps (scale 25 inches to the mile, nearly equivalent to one square inch to an acre)
of the parishes of Orsett and Little Thurrock. The map shows the positions of
all the principal deneholes in the Wood, distinguishing those pits now open, and
denoting by numbers those which have been entered during the explorations.
Plate IV.—Ground plan of the pits which were explored or visited, showing
the galleries (red) made in opening them up, and also showing by the patches of
blue tint the portions of the floors which were exposed by the removal of the
heaps of sand and debris. The numbers are the same as those used to denote
the visited pits on Plate III. No. I pit is not shown, inasmuch as from its shat-
tered condition it was not considered advisable to connect it with the others. The
plate also exhibits a section of No. 5 pit, showing the strata through which the
shaft passes. The interior of this pit, during the explorations, is given in fig. 5.
on page 239 ante.
Plate V.—Geological sketch maps of the neighbourhood of Hangman's Wool
and Bexley in Kent, showing the surface occupied by bare chalk (blue) as com-
pared with that covered by the overlying beds (brown), and also showing the
positions occupied in the latter by the deneholes. In each case the excavators
have chosen to sink the pits through some forty to sixty feet of overlying beds to
reach the chalk, though there is in both localities a broad expanse of bare chalk
within a mile of the sites of the deneholes.