THE DATING OF EARLY HUMAN REMAINS. 57
deposit of stony loam, which is claimed to be Chalky Boulder
Clay decalcified in place. The evidence in favour of its being a
contemporary fossil rests upon the apparent absence of distur-
bance in the overlying deposit.
The evidence upon the other side rests upon the completeness
of the skeleton, which gives prima facia probability of interment,
upon the race-type of the individual as representing modern man,
and upon the impossibility of identifying evidences of disturbance
in such an unstratified and featureless stony loam after the
lapse of many centuries. The bearing of all these points has
been discussed under previous headings.
There is, however, another very important point to be con-
sidered, and that is the stratigraphy of the deposit under which
it was found. We are greatly indebted to Mr. Reid Moir for
having had a careful survey of the site made, as this clears up
many points which might otherwise have been open to con-
troversy, or to differences of opinion. Thus the, critic has now
"chapter and verse" for the statement, which is perfectly
apparent to the eye—that the site is not upon the summit of
the plateau, but upon the side-slope of the valley in a peculiarly
favourable position for the development of the "ran of the
hill," as superficial re-distributed deposits are often called.
I would, however, in this connection draw particular attention
to the deposit known as the Trail. This is an irregular super-
ficial deposit of stony loam, which is commonly up to four or
five feet in thickness, and which ploughs into the underlying
beds in a series of steep-sided pipes and channels.
In contrast to a deposit laid down under water, the long
axes of the stones are frequently vertical or inclined at all angles,
while such stratification as may be traced in it, or where it affects
the stratification of underlying beds, the strata are twisted into
loops and gyrations. I think there is no doubt that it is due to
the sludge-action consequent upon the melting and creep of
large accumulations of snow. This action is independent of
any considerable slope of the ground, such as that present on
the site of the discovery of the Ipswich skeleton, but is extensively
and strongly developed upon such areas as the plateau of the
Tendring Hundred of Essex, where the fall is very slight.
In the locality named the Trail is later than the Palaeolithic
river gravels. What is still more interesting is that from evidence