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brought ; for flint does not occur naturally in this part of 

 Devonshire — the chalk, in which flints chiefly are found, 

 being distant some 70 miles, and the gi'eensand with flint 

 about 13 miles, in a direct line across Barnstaple Bay. 

 Proceeding to the south of Croyde, the "flakes" become more 

 and more scarce, until Northam Burrows are reached. A 

 slightly seawards-sloping sandy beach might be thought the 

 last place where such things would be found, yet here they 

 are again in abundance ; only not on the surface, but buried 

 some feet below in a thick tenacious blue clay deposit. At 

 low tide, on the very verge of the receding waves, at certain 

 times patches and long ridges of the blue mud appear 

 denuded of sand ; and about a foot beneath this clay traces of 

 a buried forest are found — roots and branches of hazel, alder, 

 oak, nuts, &c. In this clay and, in some cases, mixed up 

 with the carbonaceous matter, flint pebbles, " cores," " flakes," 

 and " chips " are numerous. When first exposed to the air, 

 they appear as black and fresh as if chipped off but an hour 

 ago from the chalk flints ; and yet a considerable period must 

 have elapsed since the time when those trees, of which we 

 now find but the traces, extended their roots and threw out 

 their arms over the people who worked beneath their shade. 

 Every indication seems to point to the fact that these " flakes " 

 were struck off in the place where they lie. Since then the 

 land has subsided, and what was formerly dry land, or at least 

 a marshy swamp, has now sunk sufficiently low to be covered 

 by a deposit of thick clay with a top mantle of sand, and to 

 be swept twice every day by the waves of the advancing tide 

 some fathoms deep. A paper on this submerged forest was 

 read by Mr. Ellis at the Dundee Meeting of the British Asso- 

 ciation, and my " flakes" were then exhibited. In that paper 

 incontestable evidence was brought forward that man had 

 once walked amid these bosky thickets, and worked away at his 

 flints for purposes of everyday life — either for the chase or for 



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