A criticism of a recent paper by E. J. Salisbury and F. W. Jane, [see B.A. 15(1): entry 100]. The principal conclusions of these authors are not justified by the data presented, which show no more than that oak and hazel were largely used as firewood in Neolithic and in Iron Age times, together with a number of other woody spp. including several calcicolous trees and shrubs. The beliefs of Salisbury and Jane that the Dorset chalk downs were covered with close oak-hazel wood in Neolithic times, that the 1500 yrs. following 2000 B.C. were a period of accumulation of leached soil, that this was succeeded by a period of general erosion consequent on increasing forest destruction, and that there is "objective evidence" for essential similarity of climate during the past 4000 yrs., are shown to be entirely lacking foundation in the facts presented and to be in conflict with the whole body of geological and archaeological knowledge relating to the periods in question. The presentation in a table of the occurrence of the various spp. in the charcoals and the statistical handling of the data relating to width of annual rings are also criticized, but the demonstration that the true widths of annual rings can be detd. from charcoal, and the prospective value of similar data from a considerable series of sites, if they are given valid interpretation, are appreciated.