Mf. 79.] PLATEAU IMPLEMENTS. 355 



To the Same. DARENT-HULME, 22nd April 1891. 



MY DEAR EVANS, Having done with the geological question 

 of the Chalk plateau implements, I am taking up the anthro- 

 pological side, and getting up a paper for the Institute, for which 

 Mr Peek l tells me they can give me the 23rd June. I am now 

 going over the 700 (?) specimens of Harrison's to sort the types 

 and select for exhibition. I wish you could see them. I feel 

 satisfied that their rude and elementary characters corroborate 

 the geological age to which I have assigned them. I fear you 

 are spoilt by the beauty of your own collections, and are un- 

 willing to admit the relationship of these poor cousins. To me 

 it cannot be denied, though I admit it is often difficult to recog- 

 nise their work. I am getting about again, though I keep much 

 at home and indoors. . . . 



The paper in which he laid his views before the 

 Anthropological Institute was published some seven 

 months later in its Journal, in February 1892, being 

 entitled, " On the Primitive Characters of the Flint 

 Implements of the Chalk Plateau of Kent, with refer- 

 ence to the Question of their Glacial or Pre-Glacial 

 Age. With Notes by Messrs B. Harrison and De Barri 

 Crawshay." The reading of this paper gave rise to a 

 certain amount of discussion and much adverse criticism 

 a novel experience for the author. Several of the 

 audience questioned the fact of the rude flint implements 

 exhibited being worked, and asserted their belief in 

 these chipped flints being only natural forms. This 

 opposition did not in the least shake Prestwich in his 

 opinion. It seemed to revive the incredulity which he 

 had to face when, more than thirty years before, he 

 made public his convictions as to the genuine character 

 of the implements discovered in the valley of the Somme 

 by M. Boucher de Perthes, and which up to that time 



1 Now Sir Cuthbert E. Peek, Bart. 



