IN THE THAMES BASIN. 107
mammals (see Newton, Geol. Mag., dec. iii., vol. vii., 1890).
Beneath the chalk cliff, against which the brick-earth abuts, he
came across a dense layer of flakes. "The uppermost edge of the
area covered by them is about 36 feet from the present surface,
the lowest nearly six feet lower. This area was thickly covered
with chips for the space of about 10 feet north and south, and,
as far as I know at present, 15 feet east and west . . . but
I expect that it will be found to extend further. . . The
flakes are in most cases quite new and clean, always so on the
lower side, very slightly discoloured on the upper." He was
able to re-construct some of the blocks of flint which had been
split up into flakes by fitting together the pieces. These can be
seen in the Natural History Department of the British Museum.
Near Northfleet17 (close by Swanscombe) the same dis-
tinguished observer "found a kind of beach on which lay several
haches. They lay according to the slope, from five to twenty-five
feet below the surface. . . Elephant remains of great size,
also those of rhinoceros, bison, horse, etc., are found on this
spot. Here perfect hitches of five distinct kinds and make were
obtained and some unfinished and spoilt examples. I have
examined many thousands of flakes and discovered numerous
flint hammers and knapping tools with which the haches were
made, also some elegant scrapers of peculiar form."
On the other side of the river at Grays18 implements have
been found both in the high-level gravel and in the fossiliferous
low-level brickearth.
Leaving the main valley the remaining localities will be more
conveniently dealt with in alphabetical order.
The first on the list is Aylesford, where a large number of the
characteristic weapons have been found. There are numerous
specimens in Benjamin Harrison's collection in the Maidstone
Museum, and he shewed me additional specimens when I visited
Ightham last year (1901).
At Caddington, Worthington Smith discovered an old
working place similar to that at Stoke-Newington. It is
probably the most interesting and most thoroughly investigated
of all the Palaeolithic "floors" and is fully described in the
17 "Palaeolithic Implements found in West Kent," Archaeologia Cantiana xv. (1883)
and "On some Palaeolithic Knapping-tools and modes of using them," Journ. Anthrop.
Institute xiii. (1884).
18 Hinton and Kennard, "Contributions to the Pleistocene Geology of the Thames
Valley," Essex Naturalist xi. (1900); also J. P. Johnson, op. cit.