CORRELATION OF THE PREHISTORIC "FLOOR."
267
as exposed between tide marks on the shore of marsh lands,
or in the silted-up estuaries of rivers. Such remains have been
found in this situation by the writer at Ingoldmells Point in
East Lincolnshire.5 They have also been recorded from both
Porlock and Minehead in West Somerset,6 where Dr. Boyd
Dawkins found flint flakes on the old land surface upon digging
through the overlying peat. Kitchen-midden debris consisting
of the shells of edible marine molluscs and bones split for the
marrow, together with flakes and cores of flint, have been
discovered in Barnstaple Bay. In the earlier description7
this was stated to have been found in the peat of the submerged
forest. Later work has shown that these prehistoric remains
really occur on the old dry land surface formed by the ''Head"
and beneath the peat.8 Mr. T. Rogers has found two series of
implements at Westward Ho, in this district, the one series
beneath the peat exposed low down on the shore, and the other
series in a bed of clay seen at just below high water mark and
close to the pebble-ridge.9 From the fact of their higher position,
Mr. Rogers infers that those from the clay are the later of the
two. This might almost be a description of our two series of
Eastern Essex, except that in Essex it is possible to trace the
junction between the two beds, when it is found that the appa-
rently higher clay (rainwash) with its implements passes under
and is overlaid by the buried prehistoric surface beneath the
peat. At the Barry Docks section in South Wales,10 a fragment
of a polished stone axe was found at the bottom of the upper
peat bed, situated at a level of four feet below the Ordnance
Datum line. This again appears to correspond with our buried
prehistoric surface of Essex. In Whitesand Bay (Pembroke-
shire), Dr. H. Hicks refers to having found a well-worked flint
flake in the submerged forest, associated with the remains of
the Red Deer and the Brown Bear.11
Earlier discoveries in the submerged forests of Cornwall,
exposed during stream tin workings, have also been recorded.
5 S. H. Warren, Man (published by the Anthropological Institute) (1907), 89.
6 W. Boyd Dawkins, Early Man in Britain (l880), p. 249.
7 H. S. Ellis, International Cong. Prehist. Arch. 3rd session (1868), p. 89.
Townshend M. Hall, Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc., vol. xxxv. (1879), Proc. p. 106.
8 T. Rogers. Trans. Devon Assoc. vol. xl. (1908), p. 248.
9 T. Young. Trans. Devon Assoc. vol. xxxviii. (1906), p. 267.
10 A Strahan, Quart. Jour. Geol. Soc., vol. lii. (1896), p. 474.
11 H. Hicks. Quart. Jour. Geol Soc. vol. lii. (1896), p. 489.