332 EVIDENCES OF PREHISTORIC MAN IN WEST KENT.
gravel than by stating that the Well Hill river seems to have
found its base level at 610 feet O.D., whilst the Darent still
pursues its course and is still capable of denundation at
150 feet O.D.
Another point our opponents have not been slow in using is
the fact that on the surface of the North Downs—the classic
station for Eoliths—implements of all types and in all stages of
bleaching occur in association, claiming, therefrom, that no reliance
can be placed on what are merely surface finds. The total lack
of even early Palaeolithic forms and the occurrence of typical
Eoliths only in the sections there exposed by Mr. Harrison have
curiously enough suffered entire negligence. On broad grounds
it is quite possible to distinguish between the ages of various
surface implements, although obviously the position made from
such evidence cannot be put forward as conclusive. But
although various types are found in close association on the
surface of the Downs, what is true there may not apply to other
stations. So far as my experience is concerned at Well Hill, the
summit-level, or that part of it available for search, is totally
unproductive of any evidence for Palaeolithic man ; this is all the
more noticeable, as on the lower levels of the hill I have found
Palaeolithic and Neolithic flakes and implements not in scores,
but in hundreds. This isolation of Eolithic implements on the
highest level of the district is surely of some importance in the
question of the antiquity of the various types of worked flints.
It should be remembered, however, that the plateau or Eolithic
types are not necessarily confined to the highest levels in any one
district, as owing to prolonged denudation they have been trans-
ported to lower ground ; a fact again supporting their antiquity,
for they occur as derivatives in deposits which are themselves of
great antiquity. It is necessary to take every care in defining
the limits of the plateau gravels. There is, it seems to me, a
tendency to regard every deposit containing Eoliths as Eolithic
or plateau drift—a course fraught with danger when it becomes
necessary to prove the antiquity of the true high level gravels.
Remembering that the deposits of the Wealden rivers have been
subjected to a long period of denudation during the cutting of the
east to west channels, it is quite possible that the Eoliths now
found on lower levels are really there by the denudation going
on whilst man was in the Palaeolithic stage of his progress.