: 
sel ett ee te el ol 
— 
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41 
necessitating, as it does, long, careful, and thoughtful practice, 
To obtain such a result as a flint flake, the flint to be chipped 
should be retained, by some means or other, in an elastic 
medium—an elastic medium, however, is not a sine gud non, 
although it is preferable—and the blow of the hammer-stone 
must be sharp and delivered with precision. 
“Lord Avebury has gone so far as to state that ‘a flint flake 
ts to the antiquary as sure a trace of man as the footprint in 
the sand was to Robinson Crusoe”* My observations, how- 
ever, enable me to say that this statement requires some 
modification. One would infer from such a remark that the 
production of a conchoidal fracture by any natural agency is a 
sheer impossibility. Such, though, is not the case. There are 
many ways in which flakes can be and are produced by natural 
causes where the underlying principle of flaking practically 
amounts to the same as the artificial process described above. 
One local instance will suffice in explanation: Maybe many of 
you have walked from Brighton to Rottingdean along the 
shore. If so you will have observed that wherever the rough 
seas had washed away the shingle between high and low water 
marks, it had laid bare the chalk floor. You will agree with me, 
too, that this uneven surface requires some circumspection to 
traverse in safety; for the water left in the depressions seems 
to exert a great attraction over one’s feet, and, in the endeavour 
to avoid these poois, the chances are manifold that one’s ankles 
or shins become barked by the flint boulders projecting out of 
the chalk floor. Now it is to these boulders, held firmly in the 
chalky matrix, that I wish to draw your attention. Our first and 
lively impression is that they are very abundant; our second 
impression, on closer inspection, is that many of them dis- 
tinctly show conchoidal facets. Now, after I have emphatically 
stated that the knack of chipping flakes from a flint is not easily 
acquired, you will ask how the flaking on these rough boulders 
was produced. The answer is simple. It was effected by 
natural attrition with other loose boulders and pebbles, the 
motive power being supplied by the waves of the rough seas. 
By chance it happened that some few of the boulders and 
pebbles, swept to and fro by the waves, struck the projecting 
flint at the correct angle and with the proper force, and then 
off flew a flake. Such chips, produced by the blind forces of 
nature, are irregular, unsymmetrical, and generally of small size, 
and a little practice enables one to distinguish with accuracy 
between this natural flaking and the comparatively beautiful and 
thoughtful workmanship of the hand of man. Whenever we come 
across a symmetrical or well-formed flake which exhibits the 
portions of at least two facets on its outer face, then, and then 
* Prehistoric Times, page 87. 
