JOHN EVANS — ON TEUTIAEY MAN. 149 



BoisriUetti have been found in those bods. I think, therefore, that 

 we may put on one side this question of cut bones, or carry it to a 

 suspense account ; and that Ave must wait for further evidence 

 before acceptinc: the theory of the existence of men whose principal 

 occui)ation appears to have been to cut bones at the bottom of the 

 sea, and destroy the tools they used. But when we come to the 

 (piestiou of flints, we have to determine what are the signs of 

 Imman workmauship. The principal mark is what has been called 

 the bulb or cone of concussion. 



By striking a flat surface of flint a sharp blow with a hammer 

 (as I now do to illustrate my meaning), what is called a bulb or 

 conoid of percussion is formed, and if any of these bulbs or cones 

 are present on flints dug out of the earth, there is at all events a 

 probability that they have been caused by human hands, especially 

 if a flint exhibits, as many specimens do, numerous bulbs of per- 

 cussion, or depressions corresponding to such bulbs, showing that 

 numerous blows have been administered. For, though it is possible 

 for a single bulb of percussion to be formed on a flint by dropping 

 it from a height on to a rock or stone, or by some other natural 

 means, yet it is impossible for the numerous bulbs of percussion 

 observable on a flint spear-head (such as the specimen which I 

 now exhibit) to have been produced by other than human agency. 

 Thus, isolated flints with single bulbs of percussion on them are 

 of small value as evidence ; while those with numerous bulbs 

 may be far more readily and safely accepted as being the work of 

 man, or of some intelligent being. When, then, one or two such 

 marks are observed on a flint, the probability of its being a tool 

 made by early man is great ; but when a number are present, this 

 probability becomes a certainty. That being the case, we may go 

 on to consider the finding of such flints at different spots. The 

 theory of the existence of man in the Miocene and other Tertiary 

 beds depends on the statements that the tools were actually found 

 in the particular beds mentioned ; and I venture to say that in the 

 case of St. -Brest and Thenay, where it was alleged they were 

 found in the Pliocene, this is, in my opinion, doubtful. Though the 

 age of the beds at these places is undoubted, the alleged finding of 

 the tools in them can hardly be accepted as a fact. Mr. Franks, 

 who is present here to-night, was one of a committee which was 

 appointed to consider and report upon the genuineness of these 

 alleged worked flints, and I will ask him to give his opinion 

 upon them. At Aurillac the flint certainly appeared to be of 

 human workmanship, but it was found in a conglomerate the age 

 of which might be questioned ; and at Otta the flakes as a rule 

 only showed a single bulb of percussion, and, having been found 

 on the surface, their evidence is of small value. I should, more- 

 over, be very soiTy to maintain that the beds in which they 

 occurred are undisturbed strata belonging to the Miocene period. I 

 am not sure that any of the presumed implements actually found 

 in these early strata are implements at all, and so far as the theory 

 of the existence of man in the Tertiary period is concerned, I 



