ARTS IN THE STONE AGE. 



349 



theory, and there are, besides, some inferences to be drawn from the 

 position of the implements, which, so far as they are concerned, are at 

 variance with the theory of finviatile transport. For instance, when 

 met with in valleys, it appears that the implements are not found 

 along the whole course of those valleys, as well where flint-gravels 

 are wanting as where they abound, as would have been the case had 

 they been carried down promiscuously by the streams from time to 

 time; but, only in certain limited areas, and then usually in large 

 numbers, and at about the same levels ; and further, that in several of 

 these deposits the implements are distinguished from those of neigh- 

 boring deposits by some slight difference in form. From these indica- 

 tions it may be inferred that they were made and left at or near the 

 spots on which they were found, and afterward covered up, and occa- 

 sionally displaced, by the masses of drifted material which now over- 

 lie them; and this seems the more probable, when it is seen that some 

 of them were formed from stones of the same kind as those composing 

 the beds in which they rest, and that some of these appear to have 

 lain exposed upon the surface for long periods before they were worked. 



Fig. 5. Sling-Stone, from Aberdeenshire. 



If, indeed, it had happened that these things had never been found 

 elsewhere than in river-valleys, the conclusions arrived at by Mr. 

 Evans would have been irresistible, but, so far from this being the case, 

 it is certain that these implement-bearing gravels are occasionally 

 found on the extreme margin of sea-cliffs, or isolated hills on the verge 

 of far-stretching plains situations to which no river flowing in the 

 same channels, and draining the same areas as now, could have carried 

 them. 



Mr. Evans has noticed several of these deposits as met with at 

 Bournemouth, the Reculvers and the Foreland cliffs in the Isle of 

 Wight (to these probably should be added Southampton and Brandon 

 Down, and some others) ; and he has also alluded to the remarkable 



