1894. PLATEAU MAN IN KENT. 259 



tionist's point of view — might be considered to be older. There was 

 one thing, however, that hardly fell in with his expectations, and that 

 was, that in the valley there were implements of a type identical with 

 those on the hills. But when he came to compare these two groups, 

 he found that those of the hills were fresh and somewhat sharp, while 

 those of the same type in the valley were, without exception, more or 

 less water-worn. Here, then, was the explanation. The implements 

 of this character found in the valleys were derived from the liills ; and 

 this idea also explained the existence in the valleys of several other 

 things, such as erratics foreign to the locality, and types of imple- 

 ments still rougher than those of the Hill-men. 



But now the physical features of the country perplexed him. He 

 had evidently got to something older than the oldest existing vestige 

 on the Counterscarp ; and the question was, where to look for the 

 earlier home of man, in a period before the genesis of this last physical 

 feature, and when the land-surface was probably 700 feet higher than 

 at present. This surface, said he, must have been continuous with 

 the chalk plateau ; and upon the elevated ground of the latter, in its 

 most unwasted parts, we must look to find the earliest traces of man 

 in our district. Then commenced an inch-by-inch survey of the 

 whole plateau for a distance of eight or ten miles ; and here his 

 labours were rewarded by considerable finds, at first, perhaps, a little 

 disappointing. He soon discovered that here were to be found some 

 implements exactly similar to the later palaeoliths of the Holmesdale 

 valley. His ruder forms were also represented, especially in the 

 deep valleys which cut into the plateau, while the "old brown" 

 deeply-stained flints occasionally found in the valley below were now 

 found in great profusion all over the surface, especially in some places 

 where the land was higher and had been curiously less denuded. 

 Unfortunately, however, not a single section was to be seen upon the 

 whole of the interesting area. Careful searching of the surface, of 

 slight excavations for mangold trenches, of holes for trees and posts, 

 and the deepenings of dew-ponds, and here and there of a well- 

 section, not only showed the existence of the "old brown" flints, 

 quartzites, cherts, and other erratics, but revealed the remarkable 

 fact that the former had been picked up and worked perhaps on one 

 edge, used, sharp edges being abraded in the using, then thrown 

 down again ; and further that all this had taken place before the 

 flint entered into the remarkable deposit which so altered the surface 

 of the stone, and changed its colour to that characteristic dark 

 brown. 



Here Harrison was sure he had evidence of an earlier form of 

 culture or even of intelligence. The tools were used tools rather than 

 shaped implements. But from the want of sections and invisibility of 

 beds in juxtaposition it is at present impossible to state positively 

 the exact age of the deposit in which these tools received their 

 colouring. Sometimes they are Eocene pebble flints split by frost, 



S2 



