24 



them on this subject carry his remarks any further, but he 

 hoped that he had sufficiently exjilained himself to show 

 that the flints exhibited by Mr. Brent, did possess very 

 great interest. Similar flints to those shown by Mr. Brent 

 had been found at Reeulver, first by Mr. J. Leach afterwards 

 by Messrs. Evans, Prestwich, Hughes Ramsay and 

 "Whitaker. 



Mr. BuENT said they must all have been much pleased 

 with the very lucid manner in which Mr. Dowker had ex- 

 plained the geological as well as the arcluoological character 

 of the flints he had exhibited. He was sorry that his friend 

 had been so unsuccessful in his efforts to find these flints ; 

 but he himself had made five journeys along the cold bleak 

 sands between Reeulver and Bishopshourno, and on two oc- 

 casions only was he successful in fiiuliug fliuts. He had 

 also spent several days in searching for flints in the gravel 

 pits in this neighbourhood, hut had, however, been unsuc- 

 cessful. The flints produced were found in the neighbour- 

 hood of Ash, Sittingboui'ne, and Reeulver. 



Mr. Dowker said he believed that it was pretty well 

 known that at the period at which the extinct animals of 

 which he had spoken existed in this country, it was under 

 very diff"ereut conditions to what it is now. The climate 

 was then very cold — more like that of the arctic regions of 

 the present day. 



Colonel HoKSLEY asked how it was that no human re- 

 mains had been found among the flints aud arrow heads 

 discovered in France ? 



Mr. Dowker said that human remains quickly decom- 

 posed in soil through which water percolates freely. In the 

 course of the excavation of Saxon remaius at Sarre a short 

 time since, where hundreds of graves were opened, in many 

 of them nothing was found with the exception of some 

 trinkets and teeth. Even the bones of the elephant, which 

 contained a large quantity of ivory, and resisted decom- 

 position much longer than the bones of man. 



