Feb., 1897. WORKED FLINTS FROM THE FOREST BED. 95 



deliberate blows, each of which will be followed by a second 

 involuntary tap. It is this tap which removes the small flake from 

 the bulb of percussion, and produces the well-known evaillure. This, 

 therefore, is characteristic of an intentionally directed blow. Upon 

 submitting specimen no. 3 to Mr. J. Allen Brown, F.G.S., he at once 

 noticed this inestimable hallmark. All experiments thus point to the 

 evaillure as being altogether more important than a mere bulb-of-per- 

 cussion, and, so far as we are aware, may be taken as a proof of man's 

 work, as it can easily be seen among flakes intentionally removed 

 from a block, but so far as is known under no other circumstances. 



Fig. 4 shows another example of the purple-black variety ; but 

 instead of being a chipped flake, it is worked all over, no portion of 

 the original flint remaining unworked. The similarity to no. 3 in the 

 flint, in the characteristic amethystine hue and in the work, is evident 

 at a glance, and becomes more certain upon examination. The speci- 

 men was not obtained embedded in the pan, but at its outcrop on the 

 foreshore below high-water mark, near the pan which yielded nos. i 

 and 3, Elephas mendionalis, etc. No one who has seen the two and 

 passed an opinion doubts for a moment that they both came from the 

 same bed. 



Fig. 2 depicts a very interesting implement. Like many of the 

 very early plateau specimens, and the palaeoliths, it is a naturally split 

 flint and worked from one side only; the flaking is generally of a very 

 bold and decisive character, although the edges show lighter but 

 equally firm work, unaccompanied by contusion, thereby differing 

 from the results of gravel-making, or beach-action, which invariably 

 show the effect of undirected battering action. This implement was 

 also out of the matrix when found, but its staining is so characteristic 

 as to leave no doubt in my mind that it came out of the bed with 

 which it was found associated. 



I also discovered other specimens, some of which would doubtless 

 strike some authorities as even more unmistakably human than 

 those here figured, while the collection I was able to make of the 

 stained and weathered flints from this bed would enable one to feel 

 little doubt in deciding whether or no nos. 4 and 2 came from the 

 Forest Bed. Although I have here referred only to the pan, I may 

 say that I obtained a number of small bulbed and bulbed-and-pitted 

 flakes from another part of the bed, and I am certain that patient and 

 diligent research in these beds would be rewarded with specimens 

 that would satisfy the greatest sceptic procurable. The above were 

 all found to the west of East Runton. Mr. Clement Reid, F.G.S., 

 writes me : — " I have always considered that if implements were 

 found in the Forest Bed, it would be at Runton, although up to the 

 present I have been unable to find any." 



In conclusion, I may say that I have submitted these worked 

 flints to a number of the first experts of the day, who have accorded 

 them unqualified acceptance as being man's work. Sir John 



