49
THE PALAEOLITHIC DEPOSITS AT HITCHIN,
AND THEIR RELATION TO THE GLACIAL
EPOCH.
[Report to the Royal Society by Mr. Clement Reid,
F.L.S., F.G.S. of the Geological Survey.—Proceedings of
the Royal Society, Vol. lxi., No. 369 (March 26th, 1897.)]
IN the Essex Naturalist of November, 1896 (vol. ix. pp.
245-47) is an account of some borings and excavations at
Hoxne, on the northern border of Suffolk. The investigations
at Hitchin in Hertfordshire, of which a brief notice is here given,
were conducted by Mr. Clement Reid, who had the management
of those at Hoxne, were in beds of similar age and character, and
the results equally concern members of the Essex Field Club.
For the Chalky Boulder Clay, which forms so large a proportion
of the surface of Suffolk and Essex, extends also to Hertfordshire,
and formed in both cases the best means of testing the age of the
deposits associated with it in which the excavations were made.
Palaeolithic implements have long been found at Hitchin,
and the results of the Hoxne borings made it desirable to ascertain
whether the conclusions derived from them would be confirmed
by a similar exploration at Hitchin. Accordingly, at the instance
of Sir Archibald Geikie, a grant of £50 was obtained from the
Royal Society for that purpose.
A preliminary examination of the neighbourhood convinced 
Mr. Reid that the Palaeolithic and ancient alluvial deposits
occupied a small irregular valley which had become silted-up
and almost obliterated. Difficulties arising from the "coarse,
loose, and watery character of the strata," caused boring after
boring, to be stopped by the closing in of the sides, and prevented
the drawing of an accurate section across the old valley. Attention
was therefore mainly directed to the relations of the Chalky
Boulder Clay to the Palaeolithic loams, and borings were made
in the pits from which implements had been dug. Only one bore-
hole passed through undoubted Boulder Clay, though in another
"some blue chalky clay" was penetrated, and in a third, fossils
derived from the Boulder Clay were found in the lower part of the
alluvium. In each case boring was stopped by gravelly sand full
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