The Norfolk Crag deposits bear a considerable resemblance to those of Suffolk, consisting, like the latter, of a variable group of shallow-water marine sands, pebbly gravels, and laminated clays, with occasional seams or patches of shells.

The chief differences appear to be:—

(1) The progressive lowering of temperature observed as the Suffolk beds are traced from south to north has continued still further, culminating in the “Tellina balthica” aspect of the Weybourne Crag.

(2) In every known exposure the Norfolk Crag rests directly on the chalk, not on a Tertiary clay.

(3) The Norfolk “Stone Bed” ıs much more closely packed with flints than the corresponding “Detritus Bed” of Suffolk.

(4) The “coprolitic” content is much less.

(5) The mammalian fauna presents some differences from that of the Detritus Bed.

(6) It is possible the latter deposit is of a greater age than the former.

The attention of students of Prehistory was first called to the Crag deposits by Reid Moir's discovery in 1909 of apparently humanly worked flints in the Detritus Bed at Ipswich. This discovery, though supported by W. G. Clarke's researches at Norwich, was hotly contested, and gave rise to one of the most prolonged and embittered controversies of recent times, the echoes of which, however, have by now almost died away. At the present time every outstanding authority, who has studied the deposits in person, has endorsed Reid Moir's views.

The object of this paper is to describe and to figure accurately a remarkable double-ended rostro-carinate flint implement found by me during this year (1929) upon the north-east coast of Norfolk. The discovery was made upon the foreshore about mid-way between East and West Run ton, where at low water there are exposed considerable areas of the Basement Bed, resting upon the chalk, and referable to either the lowermost division of the Cromer Forest Bed or to the Stone Bed beneath the Norwich Crag. The implement was not found in situ in the Basement Bed, but was lying, with other stones, close to an exposure of this deposit. Apart, also, from this association, the specimen contains, in some of its interstices, portions of the highly ferruginous sand of the Basement Bed, while its colour and condition make it clear to those who are familiar with the stones in this deposit, that the implement at one time—and that recently—formed a part of it. The implement exhibits a typical mottled colouration consisting of areas of black, tawny brown and chocolate brown, while its ridges and outstanding portions show in most cases a rounded and somewhat broken-down appearance, which may be due to attrition by water-rolling, but which I am inclined to regard, as I have stated elsewhere, is to be accounted for by the action of some solvent present in the Basement Bed. The specimen exhibits but few incipient cones of percussion upon its flaked surfaces (which show a well-marked glaze), and cannot, therefore, have been subjected to collisions with other stones set in movement by running water. On the other hand a certain number of striae are to be observed upon the flake-scars of the implement, and these scratches not only, as it appears, cut into the patinated surfaces, but are in a weathered-out condition, thus showing that the flint was first patinated, then striated, and afterwards exposed to atmospheric effects.

The river gravels of the Boyne Hill (1st., 100 ft. and, in this district, the highest) Terrace of the Thames at Swanscombe (Kent) have yielded flint implements in thousands for many years.

As long ago as 1905 these contemporary (not the derived) implements were correlated with the St. Acheul culture in the Somme Valley, and in 1912 some excavations were undertaken by the Geological Survey and the British Museum to determine the exact horizon at which these implements occur.

These excavations showed conclusively that the level where the implements were so abundant was at the top of the middle gravel. The excavators regarded these middle gravel implements as of “Chelles” type, but recent work has caused the word “Chelles” to be used in a more restricted sense, and they may now be regarded as of St. Acheul type.

The point of the exact determination of the middle gravel implements is important, on account of its bearing upon the age of the industry which occurs in the gravel below the middle gravel.

The remains submitted to me by Mr. R. H. Chandler represent three species, Elephas antiquus, Rhinoceros, sp., and a deer which for the moment may be determined as Cervus browni. In general character these fossils are quite like those obtained many years ago from the “Shell Pit” in the High Terrace Drift of the Thames at Ingress Vale, near Greenhithe. A full account of the older collection will, I hope, be published before long. The present small collection forms a welcome addition to the relatively scanty material from this horizon, and by the kindness of Mr. A. C. Davis it will be presented to the British Museum.

The study of flint implements has been confined in the past to a consideration of the characteristic features the implements display in virtue of the special uses for which they were designed, and of the methods employed in making them.

The determination of the position which a given series of implements occupies in the accepted hierarchy of industries has therefore been largely a matter for the expert. In making such a determination, the dimensions of the specimens in question have doubtless to be considered, along with the characteristic features to which reference has already been made. This consideration, however, has been of a general character, and the dimensions of the implements as such have not played a formal or precise part in the determination of an industry. Keen and accurate observation and a retentive memory for ‘form’ enable a competent expert to synthesise in his mind the dimensions and the special features of an assemblage of implements. On these he bases his opinion as to the cultural level to which the implements belong.

The object of the present paper is to place in the hands of the expert and the amateur alike simple statistical methods which, when applied to the dimensions of a sufficiently large group of implements, will enable the implements in question to be differentiated from others. In other words, the statistical treatment of the dimensions of a group of implements from a given industry yields results which are characteristic of that industry. At the same time it should clearly be understood that the use of statistical methods should supplement, but should not supplant, the consideration of the character of the flaking and of the special forms of the implements.

Three-quarters of a mile N. by W. of the Railway Station at Denham, Bucks., a small rounded promontory juts out into the Valley of the Colne. The Geological Survey map shows this promontory as composed of Reading beds, capped by Glacial Gravel, part of a spread covering all the higher ground between the rivers Misbourne and Colne. In the G. S. memoir on sheet No. 255, the following observation is made:—“In the large embayment between the Thames and the Colne, the Glacial Gravel appears to have been subsequently resorted in places.” A well-known example of this occurs at Croxley Green, 4¼ miles N. by E. of this site. It has been fully described by Messrs. R. A. Smith and H. Dewey (Archæologia, vol. lxvi., pp. 195–214).

Late last autumn I heard that palæoliths had been picked up in the neighbourhood of Denham. On going there to investigate, I found that a cutting of over 200 yards, for a new road running N. and S., had been made through the promontory. Unfortunately the excavation work at this spot was practically finished, and both sides of the cutting had been battered.

One very common, if not the commonest, type of burin on the majority of microlithic sites in these two counties is the micro-burin or beaked graver. In the course of the last two years I have collected, chiefly from the surface, upwards of 70 specimens of this type on Surrey sites, and as many more from the same number of sites in Sussex. The Surrey sites lie on the lower greensand belt which, crossing the southern portion of the county from east to west, broadens out in the south-west into a wide expanse of picturesque uplands studded with heaths and commons, and terminating in a bold escarpment overlooking the Weald. The pigmy-bearing grounds are widely scattered over the beds of this formation, and range from the valleys and comparatively low-lying heaths between 200-300 feet O.D., at the foot of its northern slopes to the extreme edge of the escarpment, which at Leith Hill reaches a height of 965 feet O.D. On these sites the micro-burin is almost invariably present in greater or less numbers. A description of this curious implement by Capt. F. Buckley appeared in the Society's Proceedings 1921-22. As regards his statement that the marks of usage invariably appear along the edge opposite the notch formed by the removal of the back flake, my experience differs from his. Several of my specimens lack any marks of usage along this edge, and the beak rather than the edge appears in these examples to have been the working portion of the tool.