EXCAVATIONS IN LOUGHTON CAMP, EPPING FOREST. 123
sand reached a foot in thickness in Area XVI. but was usually-
less.
I have noticed a similar bleached sand in other parts of the
Forest, and it so frequently contains disseminated charcoal that
I am inclined to think that charcoal may formerly have been
present even where it cannot now be traced. The deepest and
most protected section of the bleached sand was in Area XVI.,
and here charcoal was so common that it continuously gave
black streaks in the white sand as it was dug by the spade.
The section (fig. 1) indicates the results of our trench XVI.
across the south-western rampart of the Camp ; this was about
20 feet from the old trench II., if I have correctly found the
position of that earlier trench. The present surface soil of the
camp is very thin, and the thin line of the old surface soil, hard
and stony, underlying the rampart and "Relic-bed," was very
conspicuous.
The clean bleached sand ("b.s." in the section) although
very clearly forming the basement layer of the rampart, was
irregularly interstratified with the yellow loamy sand ("y.l.").
This bleached sand is of course merely an altered condition of
the yellow loamy sand (Bagshot Sand), but its mode of occurrence
is not at all like an alteration in place, after the construction of
the ramparts. I think there was an original difference in the
condition of the sand.
The yellow loamy sand forming the main body of the rampart
exhibited a well-marked arch in its stratification, dipping at
about 130 on either side. The same condition was also observed
in area III.
The bleached sand of trench XVI. yielded a certain number
of worked flints, including a very good scraper, but no pottery.
There were many burnt flints (hearth flints, not pot-boilers) on
the top of the bleached sand, under the yellow loam, at the
south-western end of our trench, but no worked flints nor pottery
were found with them.
The line of crosses (c) towards the right of the section, repre-
sents a considerable collection of charcoal, about 3 feet in dia-
meter. This lay on the lower part of the inner slope of the
rampart, and was covered by "Relic-bed" ("r.b.") to a depth
of 18 inches at the deepest part. Although the "Relic-bed"
here yielded very little, its character is perfectly distinctive