8 Darbishire, Iniplements from the KentisJi Plateau. 



They prove, at all events, that man existed ages 

 before any possible historical record, and pursued his life, 

 whatever it was, under conditions and with purposes 

 which we, in truth, cannot at all reproduce or conceive of. 



The interest and importance attached to these particu- 

 lar discoveries have fascinated students of all classes, from 

 scientific observers of the highest reputation to the 

 hundreds of collectors, and to the thousands of wondering 

 observers in our greater Museums. 



I have no pretension to speak for the geologists. 

 What little familiarity I have with such questions is 

 almost entirely that of the desk only, but this discovery 

 literally inflamed my mind, and for the last 40 years, 

 whenever I have had the opportunity in public museums 

 or private associations and in various localities, I have 

 examined and handled specimens of this particular class, 

 and I am certainly not without a very real familiarity with 

 the signs of what we may distinguish once for all as 

 manufacture, and otherwise of palpable distinction from 

 natural fractures due to frost or to movement and chafing 

 in water courses or in the shifting drifts which now reveal 

 them to our eyes. 



From various parts of Europe, from various parts ot 

 Africa and from India, many series of these pre-historic 

 implements have been brought within skilled survey, 

 and all that they really tell us is to repeat the lesson of a 

 particular design for particular use, and of a certain 

 observable gradual increase in the perfection of manu- 

 facture ; as if similar needs stimulated similar inventions 

 and practice amongst the earliest tribes, which we dis, 

 tinguish as those of Man, all the world over. 



All these particulars are, however, now matters of 

 common knowledge, but in 189 1-2 Mr. Prestwich published 

 in \.\\Q fournal of the Anthropological Institute a paper by 



