Abstract

The object of this paper is to investigate the contents and mutual relations of the Pleistocene fluviatile deposits associated with the headwater streams of the Thames, and to find what bearing they have on the history of the river and of Quaternary times.

The paper is rather of the nature of a first report, and contains much introductory matter, for the district to be considered has not received the amount of attention which has been paid to other parts of the same river.

The district in which the work has been carried out may be defined under two headings:—

• (i) Area of detailed work and close observations.

• (ii) A wider area which has come under observation, but which I have not been able to keep under careful scrutiny day by day.

(i) Roughly, the country lying within the bounds of the Oxford Special Sheet, Geological Survey Map, 1908.

• (a) The Thames from Newbridge to Culham.

• (b) The Evenlode from the upper end of its gorge near Chadlington by Charlbury, to its junction with the Thames at Cassington.

• (c) The Cherwell from Kirtlington to Oxford, where it joins the Thames. Ot Moor (Ray Valley).

• (d) The Thame as far up its course as Ickford.

(ii) The country enclosed by a line drawn on the map through the following places:—Banbury, Buckingham, Thame, Cholsey, Didcot, Marcham (near Abingdon), Newbridge (about 4 miles south