30 NATURAL SCIENCE [January 



careful examiuatiou of my own collection, numbering nearly a 

 thousand examples, fully liears out this view. This indeed is 

 perfectly obvious to anyone who has tried to eliip Hints. A very 

 large number of the Plateau flints are similar to No. 1, Natural 

 Science, Vol. XL, Plate IX., namely, with one surface flat, and the 

 other convex and rough. In order to chip an example like this the 

 blow must be administered to the flat side, and we find that such is 

 the case. At least 90 per cent, of the flakes on these flints have 

 been struck oft' from the flat side, and in the remaining 10 per 

 cent, it will nearly always be found that owing to the shape of the 

 flint it is easier to chip from the convex side. In fact they are 

 chipped in exactly the same manner as a reasoning being would chip 

 them to-day, If they had been flaked by natural causes we ought 

 to expect that the flakes would be forced off from either side in the 

 same proportions, and this, as I have just stated, is not the case. 

 As Sir Joseph Prestwich has remarked, " the trimming, slight 

 though it may be, is to be recognised by its being at angles or in 

 places incompatible with river drift agencies, and such as could not 

 have been produced hj natural causes which tend to remove all 

 projecting points." 



Mr Cunnington has entered very minutely into the history of 

 four of the Plateau flints, and lays particular stress on the fact that 

 Xo. 1, Plate IX., exhibits surfaces of four diff'erent ages. But as 

 two of these would be admitted by everyone as non-human, there 

 only remain two sets of flakings. He further states that, as " the 

 chippings were not all formed at one period, this fact is quite 

 inconsistent with the theory that they were artificially shaped by 

 man." Perhaps Mr Cunnington only wishes this remark to apply 

 to these old flints, because it notoriously does not apply to Xeolithic 

 and Palaeolithic forms. It is very common to find Xeolithic flakes 

 which have been twice used, the original surface Ijeing white, and 

 the newer work black. I have seen many Xeolithic scrapers, especi- 

 ally from the Wealden area where flint is scarce, which have been 

 made from Palaeolithic implements. Work of two and even three 

 distinct ages is by no means uncommon among the Eiver-drift 

 examples. It certainly seems to me more reasonable to suppose 

 that a flint was twice used by man than to imagine that it has 

 been subjected at two different periods to the action of ' natural ' 

 causes operating in a manner which would be absolutely unique, and 

 which cannot be paralleled anywhere on the globe at the present time. 



Another objection is to the supposed nselessness of the shapes. 

 But because we cannot in all instances understand their uses, it by 

 no means follows that they were without use. An extremely 

 common form in the Eiver-drift is the well-known tongue-shaped 

 implement, but for what purpose it was employed is still a matter of 



