On the Age, Formation, and Successive Drift-Stages of the Valley of the Darent ; with Remarks on the Palæolithic Implements of the District, and on the Origin of its Chalk Escarpment

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Abstract
§1. G eneral C haracter and A ge of the D arent V alley . I n former papers t I have touched incidentally upon the drift phenomena of this district, and on the occurrence of a peculiar group of flint implements found on the adjacent Chalk plateau. I now purpose to limit my observations to the circumscribed valley of the Darent, which I have had more special opportunities of studying since my residence at Shoreham. This valley, including the district surrounding it, is of peculiar interest, from the circumstance that its geological history, beginning with pre-Glacial times, may, with few breaks, be traced to Neolithic times; as also from the light it throws upon the age of some of the Thames-Valley drifts, and from its distinctive groups of Palæolithic implements. It is moreover free from the complication produced in the valleys north of the Thames by the presence of foreign-drift elements, for here the drift is restricted to débris derived from its own drainage-area. The Darent Valley is one of the few which run through the Chalk escarpment into the so-called Wealden area §, though it does not pass beyond the first outworks, being shut out by the range of the Lower Greensand from the central Weald. To the south of the Chalk range, the valley branches westward in the line of the main stream to near Limpsfield, and eastward to near Ightham in directions parallel with the ranges of the Lower Greensand aud the Chalk, and is terminated by watersheds which separate it in the

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