PALAEOLITHIC INDUSTRIES, CLACTON AND DOVERCOURT. 15
of the Holland Brook is capped by an extensive sheet of gravel
and sand. A short way behind the cliff-edge the surface level
is slightly above 50 feet O.D., but the cliff-edge itself is below
that level at the highest point. The base line of the gravel is
about half-way up the cliff at Clacton, and gradually descends
to the shore near the Holland Brook. It is a well-washed,
strongly current-bedded deposit of gravel and sand ; some
of the sand, when dug, is unusually incoherent for a river gravel.
I have visited the gravels many times, but have not yet found
even a flake, neither have I found any fauna. I have also
examined various temporary exposures inland with the same
negative result. Perhaps I have not devoted enough time to
the work, as it would be very important to secure some result,
but again the rich sites have claimed most of my attention.
The older published sections show the Clacton channel as being
cut through the western end of this sheet. I have previously
assumed that to be correct but within my own observation I
do not know the relation of the Clacton channel to the Holland
gravel.
The whole of this gravel sheet may not be the same, and it is
possible that some considerable portions of it may be a shore
deposit of the age of the submergence which concluded the
Clacton channel stage.
The Clacton and Lion Point Channels.
The Clacton channel, which was originally discovered by
John Brown of Stanway, has not been seen for some years, and
I have nothing to add to the information that I have previously
published6.
Although I first discovered the Lion Point channel deposits
as long ago as 1911 the published accounts have hitherto been
somewhat meagre. I think there is little doubt that the original
Elephant-bed of Clacton, and the more recently discovered
deposit at Lion Point (now called Jay Wick Sands) are really
sections across the same fluviatile channel a few miles apart.
One thing, however, is certain, namely, that the channel does
not run from the one site to the other in a straight line. A
considerable portion of the marsh area between the two sites
is not occupied by marsh deposits, but by a low hummock of
6 Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc., lxxix, 1923, p. 606. Essex Naturalist, vol. xxi., 1924, p. 32.