571.1 27 



n 

 The Authenticity of Plateau Man : A Reply. 



IT is not to be expected, when a discovery of new facts is announced 

 revolutionising any branch of science, that it will be welcomed 

 and accepted by all. There is no pain so great as tlie pain of a new 

 idea, and the view that man was entirely a Post-glacial mammal 

 had become such an article of faith on this side of the English 

 Channel that the evidence must of necessity be very strong to 

 account for the recent change of front. For this change we are 

 entirely indebted to Mr Benjamin Harrison and the late Sir Joseph 

 Prestwich, whose recent removal from our midst we all so greatly 

 deplore. The marvellous industry and enthusiasm of the former 

 supplied the facts from which the latter, with his wide geological 

 experience and his unequalled knowledge of Palaeolithic flint imple- 

 ments, was enabled to prepare his papers on Plateau man. Since 

 the publication of these, additional evidence has been adduced by 

 Mr W. J. L. Abbott and Mr P. Bell, and the existence of man in 

 England in Pre-glacial times has now received the assent of nearly 

 all competent geologists. 



It is noteworthy that the most enthusiastic supporters of this 

 view are to be found in the ranks of the " flint hunters " as opposed 

 to the mere collectors. The reason for this is not far to seek. 

 The former's knowledge is acquired in the field ; the latter derive 

 theirs from museum collections. In the matter of flint imple- 

 ments nearly all our museums are terribly misleading. After a 

 careful examination of, say, the collection at Bloomsbury, the un- 

 initiated depart with the idea that Neolithic man only used tanged 

 flint arrowheads and ground celts, varied with an occasional flint 

 knife or scraper, but all of them beautifully worlvcd ; whilst his 

 predecessor, the Palaeolithic savage, made nothing except ovoid and 

 pointed implements, yet all of such a character that no one could 

 possibly doubt their human origin. The collector, therefore, only 

 knows the best implements, those which are commonly spoken of 

 as " museum " specimens, and he only accepts from the dealer or 

 the navvy the implements of this class (and when the supply is 

 short it is easily augmented from certain notorious sources). The 

 " flint-hunter," on the other hand, knows only too well that for one 



