1898] A UTHENTICITY OF PL A TEA U IMPLEMENTS 109 



Institute, vol. xxi. pi. 20, No. 6), from Shepherd's Barn, analogous 

 with neolithic gouge No. 40, from Pakefield. 



(f) Ovoidal and accepted forms. (Not figured.) 



(g) Round scrapers. Nos. 21 to 23 are eolithic; 24 and 25 

 neolithic. A triangular steel scraper, with wooden handle, with 

 three slightly convex scraping edges, used to be in vogue thirty 

 years ago (and probably is still) among painters and boat-builders. 



(h) Bone needle-makers. Mr W. J. Lewis Abbott first 

 explained these puzzling forms. Eolithic specimens are Nos. 

 82to36;37isa neolith ; No. 38 modern Eed Indian, certainly 

 chipped into shape, though whether actually used for needle-making 

 is uncertain. 



(k) Stick and sapling scrapers. These small characteristic 

 hollow scrapers are all eolithic, Nos. 25 to 31. 



Mr Cunnington (p. 332) again says: "There are millions of 

 flints, and it is not surprising that a large number occur in which 

 the shape resembles palaeolithic implements." Sir Joseph Prestwich 

 used to say that it would be such that primitive man would use, 

 and instanced (on Professor Leidy's authority) that the North Ameri- 

 can Indians, on occasion, would take up and use unworked the first 

 stone that suited their purpose. {See also Prestwich, " Controv. 

 Questions,"' p. 69, on Pashoas.) 



As to the immense number of eoliths, this need cause no more 

 surprise than the vast number of palaeoliths found at Broom Ballast 

 Hole, Bournemouth, or Abbeville. Last August, near Lowestoft, 

 from one field, in about six visits I procured over 700 neolithic 

 implements and flakes, and doubtless left thousands behind. Sup- 

 posing a line of drainage to be formed in the field by a stream, all 

 these, if undisturbed by man, would eventually find their way into 

 the water channel, and if the water supply were subsequently cut 

 ofl", would be gradually covered up by rain wash, to be dug up by 

 some future anthropologist as an evidence of man's occupation. 

 This is exactly what has happened at Bat's Corner and other places 

 on the plateau of the North Downs. The pits were not dug hap- 

 hazard, but a depression was selected on geological evidence on a 

 spot that presented evidence of being an ancient line of river erosion, 

 and it was here that the masses of ochreous flints and flakes were 

 discovered exactly as geologists expected. The sides of that ancient 

 Wealden river valley were long ago denuded, and only its bottom 

 left. But it furnishes evidence of a people whose existence would 

 have been unsuspected by many, but for Mr B. Harrison's earnest 

 labours, interpreted by Sir Joseph Prestwich, Mr. W. J. Lewis 

 Abbott and others. The same evidence is available on tlie southern 

 half of the Weald. 



Assuming for the moment that the natural forces of ice-pressure 



