Manchester Memoifs, Vol. Ivii (1913), No. T 9 



suggests that it is quite probable that the Eoliths described 

 from these latter beds are actually instruments, although 

 I hold that in themselves they give no reliable evidence of 

 the occurrence of man at that period.) 



Professor Comment has described a series of Eoliths 

 from the base of the Eocene, many of which, if found in 

 Palaeolithic gravels, would be accepted as implements 

 without demur. M. L'Abbe Breuil has described a 

 similar discovery in the Thanetian ; and Mr. Worthington 

 G. Smith describes and gives cuts of some of nature's 

 forgeries that he found deep in undisturbed cla}- with 

 flints which show bulbs of percussion, ripple flaking and 

 chipped edges. 



The very brief account of mammalian evolution given 

 above will convince any unprejudiced observer that these 

 Thanetian and early Eocene flints must be of purely 

 natural production ; the utter absence of any animals 

 which we can suppose capable of designedly shaping a 

 tool at the period of deposition of the gravel which con- 

 tains them is a certain fact supported by the whole weight 

 of our palaiontological knowledge. Yet some of these 

 flints are extraordinarily like implements, and if found in 

 pala-olithic gravels would be accei)te(l without question. 

 Some of them are formed by the secondary flaking of a 

 primary flake, itself with a good bulb of percussion ; some- 

 times the secondary flaking takes the form of long narrow 

 parallel flakes, presenting an extraordinary resemblance 

 to that on some neolithic arrow heads. All types of 

 Eoliths may be matched amongst these wonderful flints, 

 including the characteristic "hollow scrapers" of the 

 Kent Plateau. 



Monsieur Marcellin lioule has shown that the same 

 types are produced daily in the washing mill of a cement 



