Joiirnal of Proceedmjs. xxv 



as the denuding action of the river went on, so that the lower beds of 

 alluvium were of course formed much later than the higher beds. The 

 association of flint implements with the remains of extinct Mammalia in 

 the high-level gravels brought them face to face with the most ancient 

 evidence of the existence of man. Whether that period represented the 

 actual appearance of man upon the globe was of course another question. 

 He thought that most probably it did not, because the mere intelligence 

 required to work a flint must have taken ages to develop. M. Boucher de 

 Perthes, in 1847, was among the first to call attention to the occurrence 

 of flint implements associated with remains of the Mammoth in the high- 

 level beds of Abbeville, on the Kiver Somme ; and his observation, like 

 many other new observations in Science, was allowed to remain for long 

 unheeded ; but the matter had at length been inquired into, and it had 

 gradually become established that the human makers of these Palaeolithic 

 weapons were contemporaries of the Mammoth and other extinct animals. 

 There was yet another class of evidences. In many limestone countries 

 water charged with carbonic acid had eaten away large caves in the lime- 

 stone. These caves, many of which were probably pre-glacial, had served 

 as storehouses for the debris left in remote ages, and these remains had 

 there become cemented up and were waiting to be read as records of the 

 past. In some of these caves the whole chronological data had been pre- 

 served ; and we had the whole series, from post-Eoman to pre-Koman, 

 down to the ages of iron and bronze, and lastly to the Neolithic and 

 Palasolithic Periods. The occurrence in these caves of the same animals 

 that were found in the high-level gravels showed that the caves were also 

 of Paleolithic age. In the South of France, in a cave belonging to a 

 period intermediate between the two Stone Ages, there had been found a 

 fragment of a Mammoth's tusk, with a figure of this animal carved upon 

 it by the hand of Palfeolithic man, and also the drawing of a Eeindeer on 

 a portion of the antler of this animal, together with other pre-historic 

 works of rude art. A more convincing proof of the co-existepce of Man 

 with the Mammoth could not possibly be given. Palasolithic implements 

 were somewhat rare, and were generally found at considerable depths in 

 ancient river gravels ; Neolithic implements were much more commonly 

 distributed, and were found either actually on the surface of the ground 

 or at a slight depth beneath it. Their esteemed honorary member. General 

 Pitt-Kivers, had opened some of the ancient hill-forts at Cissbury, near 

 Worthing, Sussex, and there he appeared to have found a flint-implement 

 manufactory, as there were hundreds of implements in all stages of 

 manufacture, and flakes scattered about in profusion. A similar manu- 

 factory had been recently discovered near Crayford, in Kent. The 

 conclusion seems to be that these implements had been objects of barter, 

 and that factories had been established at certain places where the chalk 

 had been tunnelled into for the purpose of getting out the flints. Mr. 

 Meldola then explained how worked flakes could be distinguished from 

 merely accidental scaliugs or fractures, all of them having what is known 



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