Miscellaneous, 79 



cimens of these implements, but we brought away upwards of 

 thirty others,'taken from the same pit. Some of these were found 

 at aboiit the same depth as that which I discovered, and some 

 about four feet lower down. They were procured without diflS- 

 culty from the labourers and their children. Mr. Prestwich, on 

 the occasion of his first visit, in company with Mr. Evans, brought 

 away about twenty specimens; and many others are to be 

 seen in M. Boucher de Perthes' museum. They are so common 

 in the pit in question as to have acquired a trivial name and 

 are known by the workpeople as langues de chat. 



There is one peculiarity of these implements which appears to 

 deserve particular notice ; they were evidently water-worn and 

 rounded pebbles before they were formed into weapons, or tools ; 

 and this, indeed is just such a condition as we should expect to 

 find. None but people destitute of iron would have been con- 

 tent to use such rude and uncouth instruments as these ; and a 

 people unprovided with iron would also be unable to quarry the 

 chalk for the sake of the flint imbedded in it, but would have been 

 forced to content themselves with those fragments which lay scat- 

 tered upon the surface, or but a little below it. If we examine the 

 specimens closely, we find that, while the manufactured or worked 

 surfaces, (namely the cutting edges and the point) are nearly as 

 sharp and clear as if wojked yesterday, the portion left of the or- 

 iginal, or, if we may so call it, the natural surface (that which 

 has not been struck oU" in the course of the manufacture), is often 

 very much water-worn ; and it also presents that peculiar discolor- 

 ation, usually found in flints long exposed to the influence of the 

 atmosphere, extending to the depth of a quarter or an eighth of 

 an inch, and probably due to some chemical change resulting 

 from mechanical forces. 



It would thus seem that these forces, whatever they may have 

 been, by means of which these implements were carried into 

 their present position, were in operation but for a short period, 

 since otherwise the sharp edges which they still retain would 

 have been rounded and worn if not altogether obliterated ; 

 and further that the rolled and discoloured surface of the flint- 

 pebbles with which they are associated (and from which indeed, 

 it seems probable that they were originally taken and fashioned) 

 wab due to some former change — the drift or gravel having sub- 

 sequently been merely shifted from some other spot, bearing these 



