Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1913-02-13

the high plateau graves," as much as 700 feet
above sea level The oldest OF all these gravels
is very possibly of Pliocene age, and is not re-
lated to the Thames valley other existing
river valleys. which of later date than they
are. The gravel at Uckfield (Piltdown), in which
the human jaw was found, is only 120 feet above
sea level, and not far from the River Ouse,
which flows past Lewes Probably high pla-
teau gravel existed the top of the chalk
which once stretched across the Sussex Weald,
and the gravels deposited much later at low
levels after the wearing away Of the great mass
OF chalk lying over the Wealden beds contain
some material derived from these Oldest and
highest gravels, and also of the gravel de-
posted in every successive age as the erosion
continued So that this bottom gravel on the
Sussex plain. only 100 feet above sea level is
likely to contain q mixture and assortment of all
the preceding graveIs.
Silence it - very difficult to assign the bones
and the worked fints shaped by MANI found
IN it to a definite age. Any fragment we pick
up may be old as the plateau graves which
lay on the top of the chalk in the very early
PIe1stocene or late Pliocene age, or may belong
to as late a period as that of the actual deposit
of the gravel bed in which we now find it i'm
bedded
The gravel about Piltdown is so thin layer
that it escaped attention from the officers of the
Geological Survey. 1t became known to Mr.
Dawson by the fact that local farmers were dig
gfng it and sitting it for mending roads 1t
only exists slightly raised parts of the valley
of the Ouse and its makeup" is very peculiar.
1t contains ironstone and Cceply stained iron-sand
from the Wealden strata which it rests and
peculiar ruddy-brown broken f1ints, not very
numerous, which nearly all bits of "tabu-
lar flint, recalling those of the high plateau
gravel at Ightham. in Kent.
Many Of the fints IN this Pi1tdown gravel have
been worked by early into rough imple-
ments. They are of fat shape often triangular
hr1t alyohIe
taking of human workmanship | and my com
panions picked up four from the surface of a
plowed field when l visited Piltdown. They are
rougher in workmanship than the Acheuan or
even Chel1ean, implements Of our better known
river terrace gravels. 1t is impossible to asso-
ciate them with those from any other locality
known to me; and should merely say to them
that they seem to be earlier than any flint i'm
plements which be rightly called ChelIean.
Later and more finely worked flint implements
have not been found in this gravel.
But the most remarkable thing about this
gravel is the discovery in it, by Dr. Smith Wood
ward and Mr. Dawson. of a fragment of tooth
OF mastodon and of fragments of teeth of the
Elephas ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS which were ex-
hibited to the Geological society
These two animals are known to occur in PHO
Gene strata-and are not found as late as the
Pleistocene Tin this part Of the world. The
teeth of the elephant in question are very differ
also in the Norfolk forest-bed and in one or two
assures in the South Downs filled in by an
cient sands The remains of this elephant
abound in the Pliocene of France and Italy
A few fragmentary teeth of hippopotamus a
beaver. and horse. bit of large deer's ant1er
and the human jaw and skull fragment complete
the list of animal remains. It is owing to the