35 



kangaroo skins to wear as mantles. These implements 

 generally assume a rounded form, they are usually shorter 

 than the " flakes," and more circular, one end being neatly 

 chipped all round to a cutting edge, by a series of careful 

 and gentle blows ; the other left plain for holding between 

 the finger and thumb (hence called "thumb flakes"), or for 

 insertion in a handle. In some cases a "flake " seems to 

 have been adapted to this purpose at one end, the other left 

 rough as it came from the core. 



If, then, you have been able to follow my attempt to 

 describe the process by which these stone implements have 

 been adapted to various uses, you will readily perceive, in the 

 specimens exhibited this evening, evident traces of design, 

 and regard them as the stone records of a people long since 

 passed away. They are the result of my late wanderings, but 

 represent only a very small portion of my "finds." Being 

 last summer at the small but ambitious watering-place called 

 "Westward Ho ! " in the neighbourhood of Bideford, with 

 the fine coast-line extending from Braunton Burrows to 

 Baggy Head before my eyes, the classic ground of geologists, 

 and well known to me from former visits, I was induced by a 

 recent article in the " Popular Science Review," for 1867, to 

 revisit the old scenes. That article (it must be confessed) 

 had somewhat astonished me. Certain views were there 

 brought forward respecting the ancient " sea-beach," &c., 

 described by Sir Roderick Murchison and others, which 

 seemed to me decidedly heretical. These views appeared to 

 me, j&'om my recollection of former visits to the spot, so 

 groundless, that the doubt crossed my mind as to whether the 

 writer had ever visited the place at all ; or if he had, that 

 he certainly had done so without any great amount of care- 

 ful observation. To verify this I crossed over to Barnstaple, 

 taking the Fremington gravel beds on my way — and here 

 I may mention that these beds rest upon the upturned 



