216 NATURAL SCIENCE [March 



THE AUTHENTICITY OF PLATEAU MAN 



The cudgels on behalf of the Authenticity of Plateau Man have been taken up by so 

 many scientists that I only find it necessary to call attention to one paragraph of Mr 

 Cunnington's article in the November number of Natural So'cnre (vol. xi., p. 327). He 

 states: " The vast number of the flint implements from the plateau gravel is another 

 difficulty. . . . We are told that two })its dug in 1894 into a bed of gravel one foot in 

 thickness yielded thousands of artificial flakes and some hundreds of scrapers." 



Mr Cunnington is under a serious misapprehension here. It was not from the pits, 

 but from the floor on the face of the Chalk Escarpment, nearly SO yards long, that 

 these numerous flakes were discovered. Moreover, these flakes were not those of Plateau 

 man at all, but of the late Palaeolithic man, and are of undou]>ted authenticity, ])eing 

 of the ordinary form and bearing that hall mark of man's handiwork, the bulb of per- 

 cussion. Many have been sent to and acknowledged by Sir John Evans liimself. 



If Mr Cunnington had carefully read the report to the Britisli Association, Ipswich, 

 1895, he would have seen that in reference to the plateau gravel of one foot in thick- 

 ness, my words were : "This gravel was hard and compact. From it I secured very 

 many worked implements." Specimens forwarded at the time to Sir Joseph Prestwich 

 lirouglit the reply : " Interesting, rude but true." Benjamin Hakhison. 



IfiiiTHAM, FeJy;/. 0, 1898. 



SOCIETE PHILOMATHIQUE DE PARIS 



In a copy of the publications of this Society, preserved in the British Museum (Natural 

 History), there is a portion of vol. i. entitled Bulletin dc la Society Phllourathiqnc d ses 

 corre.tjmudcns, which is paged l'-119'. As I liave had a good deal of trouble about the 

 date of this portion of the work, I may mention that in vol. iii. of Bulletin des Sciences 

 de la SoeietA Philomathiquc, p. 192, under the heading "Avis," there is a note which 

 enables us to fix the date of publication of these pages as 1803. 



C. Davies Shekborn 



(Index- Animaliuw ). 



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