1 6 Darbishire, hiiplements from the Kentish Plateau. 



exhibits the lateral curve and at one place a succession of 

 flaking marks of a very marked and characteristic beauty. 

 This stone has apparently been selected for having a 

 prominence on the back, which enables a man to have a 

 much firmer grip of it. One might have called this 

 accidental, and a chance single stone, but for the fact that 

 I have got another pointed specimen with the lateral 

 point, the vertical chipped edges, and the handle pro- 

 minence. I show also another grand specimen, measuring 

 lO inches by 8 inches, and weighing 5^1bs., also exhibiting 

 the lateral curves, the vertical chipping, and a prominent 

 handle. The series is complete, from these great tools 

 down to some as small as a sixpence and weighing less 

 than half an ounce. 



One day while I was exploiting the collections in the 

 British Museum for illustration of my subject, I was 

 delighted to find a specimen from near Bland, Dorsetshire, 

 of a shape almost exactly corresponding with one of these 

 great plateau stones. 



Before I conclude, let me repeat again that I personally 

 cannot claim for myself or my statements any other 

 authority than that of a faithful private study of stone 

 implements from many parts of the old and new worlds, 

 and the continuous handling of such specimens in various 

 museums here and abroad, and in my own collections. 



There is very much in this great province which I do 

 not know and cannot speak about, but I have a certain, 

 and, to my mind, a fairly reliable experience of, firstly, the 

 distinction between stones of natural fracture and those 

 which exhibit designed manufacture, and, secondly, of the 

 distinctions between earlier and later implements. 



Upon this basis I am convinced, in the first place, that 

 the eolithic series is certainly manufactured, and, further, 

 that it is of a conception and execution entirely distinct 



