108 NATURAL SCIENCE [February 



read Professor Prestwich's last words upon the subject/ he would 

 have found his objections answered. It is candidly admitted that 

 the uses of some forms have not been explained, but it merely begs 

 the question to assert that their- forms are useless. Mr W. J. 

 Lewis Abbott points out that the same argument might be raised 

 against the exquisitely worked trapezoidal forms from the Hastings 

 kitchen midden, the valley of the Meuse and elsewhere. 



The question of the authenticity of workmanship is sub- 

 stantiated by the parallelism of the chipping round the edges. 

 It is simply impossible that the mere blind and unintelligent 

 natural forces (1) of contusion in a torrent, or (2) crushing under 

 ice could have produced that parallelism, often taking a flake off 

 nowhere else, and at the same time giving rise to a well-defined 

 outline. So that, although we may not be able to explain the use 

 of each and every eolith, they group themselves into certain well- 

 defined classes, which are as certainly not any more the result 

 of chance contusion or ice-pressure than the parallelism of the 

 chipping. 



But are the plateau implements of useless forms ? In many 

 instances, at least, we can be certain that they are not. 



(a) Squared skin-scrapers. See Prestwich, " Controv. Ques- 

 tions," plate i. No. 1. This specimen is in the Prestwich collection, 

 British Museum, and is squared on three sides. So are specimens 

 Nos. 15 to 17. No. 16 is from the 1894 pit, near Bat's Corner, 

 and was taken out by me in presence of Mr. B. Harrison and three 

 other men, December 23rd, 1894, from the bed of plateau gravel. 

 These squared scrapers. Professor H. G. Seeley suggested to Professor 

 Prestwich, are analogous to the square wooden skin-scrapers formerly 

 used by tanners, who now use a wooden-backed steel one. I have- 

 verified these facts by a visit to Mr Barrow's tannery, Eed Hill, 

 Surrey. These eoliths are also similar to the square metal scraper 

 still used by carpenters. Eolithic man, like the modern tanner, 

 only used the long straight edge, and it was unnecessary to dress 

 the fourth side at all. Eolithic men also used a blunt scraper, as 

 the modern tanner and carpenter do. 



(b) Drills or rimers. ( Vide ante^.) 



(c) Hammers, ice-crushers, bone-breakers. Specimens 1 to 

 5 are eolithic. No. 6 is a neolith from Castle Farm, Shoreliam. 

 No. 5 I took out of the plateau gravel bed. Bat's Corner, on the 

 same occasion as mentioned above. 



(d) Flakers. Eolithic specimens 41 to 43 all from the chalk 

 plateau. No. 41 has a greenish polish on its flaked edge similar to 

 No. 21. No. 43 is partly bleached. 



(e) Gouge. Eolithic specimen No. 39 {vide Jowrn. Anthrop. 



^ "Controverted Questions," pp. 69, 70. 



