24
THE ESSEX NATURALIST.
we can possibly correlate the lower gravel of Swanscombe and
the Clacton beds as being contemporary one with another. In
fact, the balance of the evidences points to the end of the Grays
Inn stage (that is, later than the middle gravel of Swanscombe)
as the date of the Clacton channels. We must then consider
whether this conclusion fits the evidences of the flint industries.
There can be no question that the industry of the lower
gravel of Swanscombe has a very close affinity to the industry
of Clacton and is entitled to the name Clactonian. Nevertheless
the two industries are not identical. The Swanscombe Clac-
tonian is throughout larger and heavier, and flaked with a heavier
hand, than the industry of Clacton. Mere size might be due
only to differences in the local flint supply, but there is, I think,
rather more in it than that. There are also other differences.
The Swanscombe flakes, in addition to being larger, are, so to
speak, more emphatically Clactonian than those of Clacton
itself ; that is to say, the special Clactonian peculiarities are
more general and more strongly marked. The characteristic
Clacton discs with a definite edge all round, occasionally pass
into flaked spherical pieces ; at Swanscombe it is the rude spheres
that occasionally pass into discs. There are rude trimmed
flakes in the Swanscombe series, but these are decidedly further
away from the Mousterian (or High Lodge) trimmed flakes than
those found at Clacton, of which fig. 5, 5-7 are typical. There
are coarse, heavy pointed implements at Swanscombe, but the
small pointed implements (fig. 5, 1) that are quite a feature of
Clacton seem to be absent from Swanscombe : the two groups
of pointed implements are so different in balance that they could
scarcely have served the same function. Several of the Clacton
implements that accord with the heavy Swanscombe technique
are abraded and appear to be derivatives from an earlier deposit.
I have traced the Clactonian industry in gravel at Burnham-
on-Crouch at about 60 feet O.D., and also in a pit (now closed)
situated at about the same level 0.75 mile N.N.E, of Weeley
and 0.85 mile S.E. of Tendring church. At Burnham I have
obtained besides a few flakes, etc., one Clactonian chopper that
is entirely in the heavy Swanscombe style, and actually scales
87 ounces. I have a large collection of Clacton choppers, and the
five largest of these weigh respectively 45, 41, 39, 34, and 29 ounces.
At Weeley I obtained several examples of the flaked spheres