234 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



Bed ' of Cromer, Norfolk." This is a paper of first-class import- 

 ance. The reader will remember that the Strepyan and Chel- 

 lean are the two oldest stages of the so-called Palaeolithic age, 

 though the}'^ are of course more recent than the Rostro-Carinate 

 implements discovered by Moir, which date back to Middle 

 Pliocene times. Now the geological date of the Chellean 

 industry, and of the earlier Strepyan industry, has been a matter 

 of long controversy. The great German glacialist, Penck, 

 placed the Chellean in the second of his three interglacial 

 periods, an interpretation which carries the corollary that the 

 Aurignacian stage (which signalises the arrival of H. sapiens 

 and the beginning of what Elliot-Smith has called the Nean- 

 thropic period) is to be placed in the third interglacial phase. 

 On the other hand, the leading French pre-historians have 

 placed the Chellean in the third interglacial, with the corollary 

 that the Aurignacian comes after the fourth glacial phase. 

 These two Pleistocene time-tables have long been well known 

 and well understood by palaeontologists. The two schemes are 

 mutually exclusive, though certain writers have sometimes 

 attempted to combine them. The matter remained in this 

 condition for a decade and more, English geologists adhering 

 either to the so-called German school or to the so-called French 

 school. In particular, Sollas supported the French interpreta- 

 tion. During the last nine years I have referred to the question 

 more than once in Science Progress, and have indicated my 

 reasons for adhering to Penck's scheme, with which the pioneer 

 work of James Geikie was, in the main, remarkably congruous. 

 During the last two years new English evidence has thrown 

 additional light on the problem, and has revived the contro- 

 vers}^ In the collection of this evidence, Reid Moir's work in 

 East Anglia has held a most prominent place. He has found 

 Chellean implements in Middle Glacial Sands and Mousterian 

 implements in the Chalky Boulder Clay. He has correlated the 

 Chalky Boulder Clay with the Riss (third) glaciation, and the 

 Middle Glacial Sands with the Mindel-Riss (second) interglacial 

 phase ; and it seems to me that these conclusions are justified. 

 (See Science Progress for April and July 1921.) Moir there- 

 fore is in agreement with Penck. But the new finds are 

 important in that they push the Chellean even further back. 

 The Cromer Forest Bed is to be regarded as belonging to the 

 first interglacial period, the second glacial phase itself being 

 represented in East Anglia by the Cromer Till. The Chellean 

 implements which Moir describes and figures in the above men- 

 tioned paper, are, therefore, one complete glacial cycle older 

 than the great Chellean industry of the Continent. There is, 

 of course, nothing especially surprising in this revelation ; we 

 should almost have expected that the Chellean industry would 



