18
found thirty-one Palaeolithic implements in the gravels on
both sides of the Lea between Clapton and Leyton or Forest
Gate, These implements are mostly pointed or lanceolate, a
few ovate. I have also found seven 'trimmed flakes,' as they
are termed—i.e., flints chipped all over one side (like an imple-
ment), the other side being plain or nearly so. Add to this
several hundreds of flakes of all sorts and sizes—a few bones
and fragments of mammoths' tusks, &c." Among numerous
microscopic objects found in the gravel of the Lea Valley, at
a depth of twelve feet, Mr. Smith has also discovered some
human hair, which he believes to be. of Palaeolithic age. The
remains of animals of post-glacial age have been discovered
plentifully in the chalk quarries and brick-earth pits at Gray's
Thurrock and Ilford*—these districts indeed appear to be
veritable geological Tom Tiddler's grounds—and sections of
Post-glacial beds have likewise been exposed at Leyton,
Aveley, Plaistow, and in the Roding Valley at Theydon Bois.
Among more recent deposits we have an old sunken forest in
the peat opposite Walthamstow Marshes, which extends for
several miles, and is exposed at low water.
Palaeolithic man was followed by his Neolithic successors,
who peopled this country after the last great glacial submer-
gence ; then we have evidence of those advances in civiliza-
tion which resulted in the use of bronze, and filially in the
iron age. The great geological record here passes into the
historical period, the study of which comes into the province
of archaeology. On this subject I shall have very little to
say. Good work has been done, and will no doubt continue
to be done, by the Essex Archaeological Society, and the fine
collection of antiquities in the Colchester Museum is partly
the result of their labours. The ancient earthworks recently
discovered in Epping Forest by Mr. B. H. Cowper, and sur-
veyed by Mr. William D'Oyley, will be of special archaeo-
logical interest to us. The Loughton Camp is supposed to
* Among the mammalian remains found in these pits are the mam-
moth, two species of elephants, hippopotamus, rhinoceros, hyaena, bison,
two species of bears, Irish elk, cave lion, wolf, &c. Sir Antonio Brady's
Museum, at Stratford-le-Point, contained a collection of Post-glacial
fossils of world-wide celebrity, now presented to the British Museum,