466 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



with a single valid reason for accepting the view that Asia 

 witnessed the earliest stages of man's evolution, and more- 

 over as this vast country is a veritable terra incognita to pre- 

 historians, I regard it as useless and unscientific to engage in 

 speculation as to what did or did not happen there in the 

 remote past. But, as I know of no reasons why Asia should 

 be regarded as the probable home of earliest man, neither am 

 I familiar with any cause or causes which would preclude the 

 area which is now England from having had that distinction. 

 Thus from the standpoint of pure theory any one may favour 

 Asia or England as his fancy prompts him. 



When, however, we pass from the domain of theory to 

 that of fact the situation assumes a different aspect. Of 

 prehistoric Asia we know next to nothing, and therefore have 

 no facts to rely upon ; of prehistoric England on the other 

 hand we know a great deal and have a multitude of facts at 

 our disposal. What are those facts ? 



First and foremost there are the various pre-palaeolithic 

 flint implements which have been found in different parts of 

 the country. 



I have seen and examined such implements from the Kent 

 plateau, 1 from ancient deposits near Salisbury, Peppard 

 in Oxfordshire, Aldershot, and Selsey Bill in Sussex. 2 It 

 would thus appear that these early flint implements occur 

 over a very wide area, and further search will no doubt extend 

 it still more. But it is in East Anglia where the greatest 

 facilities exist for recovering evidences of pre-palaeolithic man. 

 In this district occur widespread glacial deposits of Boulder 

 Clay and gravel, and beneath these in many places is found 

 the Pliocene Red Crag surmounting a detritus-bed containing 

 the debris of an ancient pre-Crag land surface. 



In no other part of England is such a deposit as the Red 

 Crag to be found, and in fact the Pliocene strata are almost 

 solely confined to East Anglia. 



It has been my good fortune during the past twelve years 

 to have been able to investigate the Boulder Clay, Middle 

 Glacial Gravel, and the sub-Red Crag detritus-bed in search 



1 " On the Primitive Characters of the Flint Implements of the Chalk Plateau 

 of Kent," Sir J. Prestwich, Jour. Anthrop. Inst. vol. xxi. pp. 246-62. 



* "The Sub-Crag Flints," J. Reid Moir, Ceol. Mag. V. vol. x. No. 12 

 December 1913, pp. 553-5. 



