Manchester Memoirs, Vol. xlvi. (1901), No. 2. 7 



Many conjectural calculations have been offered as to 

 the time and deposit of these valley gravels, but, so far as 

 I know, there is not any correlation of geological and 

 historical time relating to them. 



They prove the existence of man at the time of 

 deposit of the quaternary gravels, and that is all. 



Certain comparisons between the implements till 

 lately used by the North American Indians and by the 

 Australians are here and there giving hints as to the use 

 of some such implements. 



Many discoveries of implements not very different in 

 form, made by Mr. Seton Karr in Somaliland and in the 

 Egyptian Eastern Desert, seem to indicate that some use 

 of similar implements may have continued even later on 

 in the recent geological period, apparently mixing up 

 " paleolithic " forms with some of "neolithic" shape. With 

 all the thousands of such implements, passed from hand 

 to hand by keen observers, it has as yet been impossible 

 to say what was the precise use to which they were 

 applied or how they were distributed in their strata, 



It is not very surprising that even the imagination of 

 men of the highest scientific culture of this day should be 

 unable to throw back their interpretation, so as to explain 

 how the man of the Valley of the Somme, of the Ouse, or 

 of the Axe, made his tools, much less how he used them. 



We say the Man, because complete familiarity with 

 the forms and with the resulting comparisons of his manu- 

 facture, indicates distinctly not only handiwork, but 

 specifically intellectual human design in the adaptation of 

 his implements to some particular use. 



When we recollect that 6,000 years ago the Egyptian 

 workman carried his tools in a bass bag, just as every 

 joiner does to this day, we need not wonder that the form 

 of the pointed axe-head and the ovoid implement lasted 

 through periods of which we have no date or measure. 



