382 PLATEAU IMPLEMENTS. [l895. 



reptile, you lately sent me. When you next see M. Daubre'e, 

 kindly remember me to him. We are staying here for the 

 winter, as we find Shoreham too cold. We are both confined 

 to the house, but I am much better than I was last year. Mrs 

 Prestwich sends her kind regards, and believe me to be, my dear 

 M. Gaudry, yours very sincerely and attached, 



JOSEPH PRESTWICH. 



J. Prestwich to Sir J. Evans. LONDON, 2nd February 1895. 



MY DEAR EVANS, ... I am writing a magazine article on 

 the Plateau Implements, in which I wage war against all the 

 Oxford critics, including yourself. I have finished my " Collected 

 Papers," and have another Flood Tradition paper in hand, so we 

 have plenty of occupation during our confinement by cold and 

 snow. . . . 



I do not think Skertchly's hypothesis will supersede Richt- 

 hofen's. 1 Why should the Loess shells be destroyed in China 

 when so many are preserved in Europe ? . . . 



J. Prestwich to B. Harrison. LONDON, 15th March [1895]. 



DEAR SIR, Thanks for the sight of the specimen. It is quite 

 immaterial whether it came from the South or the East Coast. 

 The essential is that it is a shore specimen. It certainly 

 simulates closely some of the plateau specimens, but it is in fact 

 merely a naturally split pebble of which the outer edges are worn 

 by sea-action. As I have pointed out, some of the plateau speci- 

 mens are so made that it is difficult to draw the line between 

 Nature and Art. But it is of no use taking such specimens 

 as evidence on either side. What is wanted are well-defined 

 types, of which the characters are positive and not negative. Let 

 the sea -action advocates show specimens of the [three] types, 

 and then we [shall] attend to their argument. There are many 

 natural flints which simulate the palaeolithic implements, but 

 they prove nothing. To discuss them is only waste of time. 

 My doctor forbids again my return home for the present, and I 

 am, yours very truly, JOSEPH PRESTWICH. 



1 Paper by Skertchly and Kingsmill, in Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc., vol. li. 

 p. 238. 



