Manchester Memoirs, Vol. Ivii. (19 13), No. 1- H 



which the Mauer jaw was found that the a /^rwri'wnpvo- 

 babihty of the existence of " Ma;i " at that period is of 

 shght value, if of any at all, as modern types of animals 

 were already appearing in great force in the middle 

 Pliocene of Europe. The discussion therefore will have 

 to be directly concerned with the flints and the con- 

 ditions under which they could have been formed. 



The scratches with which so many of the flints are 

 marked, although they could, of course, be formed in 

 connection with ice work, are, in my opinion, not of a 

 character which allows of a definite statement that they 

 are of glacial origin. The stones do not, of course, 

 show the sub-angular form characteristic of glaciated 

 pebbles, and the scratches themselves have not that 

 regular parallelism which alone justifies an unqualified 

 demand for ice action. They could in all probability 

 have been formed during movements in a thick bed of 

 gravel, either slowly, by earth creep, or by more rapid 

 land-slides. If this be so, it is not unlikely that the stones 

 were at one time in circumstances where they were 

 exposed to the action of large forces capable of producing 

 fractures of the magnitude required. 



With regard to the actual flaking, little can be said ; 

 it appears to be at present impossible to distinguish 

 between human and natural flaking merely as such. Ac- 

 cording to M. Commont and M. L'Abbe Breuil's figures, the 

 chipped flints of Thanetian age, which 7/a/st be of natural 

 origin, show bulbs of percussion and secondary parallel 

 flaking, so that t/iese cliaracters vanish as evidence of 

 human workmanship. 



Evidence of human workmanship of a chipped flint 

 depends, in fact, on its being of such a shape that it can be 

 handled, and that it can be used for some purpose. It is 

 much strengthened by the occurrence of numerous ex- 



