
AGE OF SURFACE FLINT IMPLEMENTS OF EGYPT AND SOMALILAND. 51 
Service des Ponts et Chaussées. This material consists of sand and gravel 
rich in iron pyrites, in the midst of which lie, pell-mell, bones of animals and 
stone implements fashioned by the hand of man. 
“These have for some years been diligently collected by M. Louis Gentil, 
a geologist, and form the subject of a memoir that has just appeared in 
‘P Anthropologie’ (Tome XI., 1900) by my friend M. Marcellin Boule, of the 
Galerie de Paléontologie at the Jardin des Plantes, Paris.. Some 200 
specimens of implements have been submitted to him, of various sizes, and 
all or nearly all of well-known palolithic forms, including several with a 
broad chisel-like end, of which examples have been found in the laterite of 
Madras and the gravels of Madrid. They are for the most part formed of 
an eocene quartzite, though some smaller specimens of the type known as 
that of ‘le Moustier’ are formed of flint. The facies of these latter is not so 
distinctly paleolithic as that of the former, of which some, through the kind- 
ness of M. Marcellin Boule, are exhibited. 
“The most important part of the discovery is that which relates to the 
mammalian remains found with the implements. These are of elephant, 
rhinoceros, horse, hippopotamus, pig, ox, sheep, and certain cervide. I will 
not detain the Society with the details given in M. Boule’s memoir, but I 
may call attention to the fact that the elephant is not the African elephant, 
but one more nearly related to the quaternary or even pliocene elephants of 
Europe, to which the designation atlanticus has been given. Some teeth 
seem closely allied to those of E. meridionalis and even EH. armeniacus. Hayv- 
ing regard to the whole fauna, M. Boule arrives at the conclusion that it is 
identical with that of the fossiliferous deposits of Algeria, which from their 
topographical or stratigraphical characteristics have been assigned to the 
Quaternary or Pleistocene Period. He also cites other instances in Algeria, 
such as Ternifine and a station near Aboukir, in which palzolithic implements 
have been found associated with the remains of a similar pleistocene fauna. 
“Altogether, these recent discoveries in Northern Africa tend immensely 
to strengthen my position with regard to the truly paleolithic character of 
the implements found in other parts of that vast continent, and I am tempted 
to bring for comparison some few specimens from South Africa. One of these, 
found by Mr. J. C. Rickard at the junction of the Riet and Modder twenty 
years ago, is almost indistinguishable from those of the Lac Karar, as is also 
one from the valley of the Embabaan in Swaziland. But the most remarkable 
is an implement of typically paleolithic character found in 1873 under 9 feet 
of stratified beds at Process-fontein, Victoria West, by Mr. E. J. Dunn. 
(See also a paper by M. E. T. Hamy in the Bulletin du Muséum d'Histoire 
Naturelle, 1899, No. 6., p. 270.) gi 
Professor A. H. Sayce has favoured me with the following valuable notes 
and criticisms on my paper :— 
“Helwan, March 16, 1900. 
“Many thanks for your highly interesting and important Paper on 
Seton-Karr’s stone implements. If I do not accept your conclusions it is 
because I can supplement and in some cases correct the data upon which you 
have had to depend. 
“The galleries in the Wady-es-Shékh were visited by me before Mr. 
Seton-Karr saw them, and I have inserted a notice of them accordingly in 
the new edition of Murray's Handbook, p. 698. Large quantities of the flint 
were brought to the bank of the Nile at the northern corner of the Gebel 
Shékh Embarak, and there worked into various tools and weapons. But all 
these latter belong to the late Neolithic Age, and I have found them associated 
with glass and pottery of the Roman period. Among the many hundreds of 
E 
