EVIDENCES OF PREHISTORIC MAN IN WEST KENT. 335 



these interesting flints — a circumstance owing probably to their 

 insignificance both in nurrxbers and appearance. It is possible 

 to call them Eoliths of late type — an intermediate position 

 suggested by a large number bearing evidence of extreme 

 climatic conditions in their rubbed and striated surfaces. 

 Without placing too much reliance on the occurrence of tliese 

 scratches, it may well be argued that the large proportion of 

 implements so marked will agree with their suggested inter- 

 glacial age. The implements, as you will see, are but slightly 

 rolled, the points and edges being comparatively fresh. Their 

 flat surfaces, however, are abundantly striated, and in one 

 instance, whilst the sinuous edge remains perfectly fresh, the 

 flat surfaces are not only much scratched, but literally ground 

 away. The fact therefore that these portions of the implements 

 usually attacked in running water remain unaltered, whilst the 

 flat surfaces bear evidence of rough treatment seems to call for 

 some less mobile transporting agent than running water. I do 

 not for one moment suggest that we have here evidence of 

 ice action in its Continental sense, but that these implements 

 received their scratches owing to their transport on masses of 

 frozen material floating down stream, accumulating on^ flood 

 plains and grinding each other in the processes of accumulation 

 and dispersal. Il may perhaps be well to examine the conditions 

 under which these striated flints occur; the diagram at Fig. i 

 shows the patch of gravel in which they occur situated between 

 450 and 470 feet O.D. A careful examination of its composition 

 shows a remarkable collection of materials. It may be tabulated 

 thus: — 



1. Green-coated flints from base of Thanet Sand. 



2. Fragments of ironstone. 



3. Scratched flints, already alluded to (worked and unworked). 



4. Palaeolithic flakes and implements, quite unrolled, 



5. Neolithic flakes in great abundance. 



6. Large unrolled flints from the chalk. 



7. Chert. 



8. Quartzite. 



9. Oldbury stone (red variety). 



The greater number of the constituents above mentioned are 

 of southern origin, and may therefore be regarded as a southern 

 drift, brought down by the Darent when that river ran some 3U0 

 feet above its present level. That the material is later than the 



