EARLY MAN of nearly an acre. The objects found in the chambers during the careful examination by Messrs. Dawson and Lewis are of a remark- able and miscellaneous character. They include neolithic implements, cores, etc., Romano-British pottery and some metallic objects of the Roman and subsequent periods ; also a portion of an antler of the red deer, fragments of human teeth, and charred wheat. It must be explained that the floor of the chambers was covered by two layers ; the lower layer, in which these objects were found, consisted of finely broken chalk nearly 3 ft. thick, and the upper, made up of large loose fragments of chalk, was of various thicknesses at different parts. As some of the objects in this lower level, such as leaden seals or badges, were of seventeenth century date, it follows that the caves were open and this part of the floor was being built up at least as late as that period. The pieces of Roman pottery, etc., seem sufficiently numerous to point to the conclusion that the excavation is as old as the Roman times. Generally speaking, however, the evidence which has so far been produced does not seem to be very convincing. There is a curious mixture of objects which suggests contact with external influences; and the only thing that can at present be made out is that the excavations are of considerable age and were constructed for some economic purpose. Probably they have been put to the secondary purpose of hiding-places. The extensive caves near Hastings Castle known as St. Clement's Caves are doubtless to a very large extent and in their origin the result of natural forces. The large fissures in the rock are too extensive to have been produced by artificial means. But it is clear that the passages and chambers have undergone considerable modification at the hand of man. The local tradition that these subterranean chambers have been used as hiding-places for smuggled goods lacks confirmation. Much of the sand removed from the caves has been dug for the purpose of sand- ing floors in Hastings. Without a systematic examination of the caves, however, it seems useless to speculate as to the period to which they should be assigned. Ancient boats, possibly of British age, have been discovered buried in the soil at Bexhill, Burpham, and North Stoke. In the Dawson Loan Collection exhibited at the Brassey Institute, Hastings, are several local discoveries of Neolithic and Bronze Age antiquities of considerable interest. Among tliem are two articles, the period of which appears to be somewhat uncertain. They comprise (i) a socketed piece of bronze evidently only a part of a larger implement and ending in a kind of reversed shield found at St. Leonards Marina, and (2) a piece of stag-horn 1 1 inches long, pierced in the middle by a nearly square hole. This object is described on its label as a hammer, for which purpose it does not seem to be particularly fitted, and it is said to have been found m the submarine forest at Bulverhythe, half-way between St. Leonards and Bexhill. It seems rather closely related to those objects made of the tines and beams of the red deer antlers which, it has been suggested, 327
