1898] THE AUTHENTICITY OF PLATEAU MAN 29 



near Eastbourne, by ]\Ir Hilton ; at Steele Hill, near Lenham, by 

 Mr Crawshay ; at Blean Hill, Canterbury, Amersham, and Michel- 

 dever, Hants, by Eev. li. Ashington Bullen ; near Salisbury, by Dr 

 Blackmore ; in South Essex, by Dr Erank Corner ; and at West 

 Wickham, Kent, by myself. With the exception of the f^ssex finds, 

 the gravels in which they occur bear no relation to the existing 

 river systems, whilst Dr Corner's specimens, though obtained from 

 Thames gravels, are derived from older beds as their rolled and worn 

 condition shows. 



It cannot, however, be too strongly nrged that photographs, how- 

 ever excellent as such, convey absolutely no idea of the appearance 

 of these flints ; and though the figures given in Sir Joseph Prest- 

 wich's papers, and in his last published work " On Some Contro-^ 

 verted Questions of Geology." as also those given by Mr Abbott in 

 Natural Science [4], are very good indeed, yet to obtain a true 

 estimate of their character a careful examination of the actual 

 specimens must be made. 



In looking over a large series it will at once be noticed that thfr 

 flakings differ very much in colour. On many of the flints from 

 Branshatch the chipped edge is whitish or pale yellow ; yet even on 

 these specimens one may often find portions of the ferruginous 

 deposit on the worked surface, so that probably the colour has been 

 show^]i. Many of the examples, too, will be seen to be polished, and 

 this Mr Cunnington attributes to the action of blown sand. But it 

 is identical with that found on the flints from the Pliocene gravel of 

 Dewlish, and considered by the Rev. 0. Fisher to be probably " due to- 

 the long-continued percolation of water carrying fine silt with it " ;. 

 and this view is, I think, the correct one. As to the scratches- 

 which occur but rarely, and which Mr Cunnington considers glacial, 

 I think far too much stress has been laid on them. I cannot believe 

 that they have been " caused by the movement of pointed flints 

 across the flat surfaces of other flints under considerable pressure." 

 The only effect of such conditions would be to smash all the points,, 

 the result which has occurred in all my attempts to scratch one 

 flint with another. The scratches are perfectly clean and have cer- 

 tainly been caused by a mineral much harder than flint, and in all 

 probability have been graved by the small quartz grains which occur 

 in the iron pan. I should, however, like to point out that one 

 implement, No. 534 of Mr Harrison's collection, is scratched on both 

 sides, and this example has been accepted as of human manufacture 

 by Sir John Evans. It is stained a deep ochreous colour, was found 

 at West Yoke, and is now deposited in the Maidstone Museum, 

 where I hope it will find a permanent home. 



Mr Cunnington takes exception to the statement that, as a rule, 

 the chips were struck off from one side of the flint only ; but a 



