4o6 



NATURE 



[May 26, 192 1 



An Early Chellean Palaeolithic Workshop-site at Cromer. 



AT a meeting of the Royal Anthropological Institute 

 held in the rooms of the Royal Society, Burling- 

 ton House, on May 3, Mr. Reid Moir exhibited a 

 large collection of ochreous flint implements, cores, 

 and flakes recovered upon a limited area of foreshore 

 exposed at low water at Cromer, Norfolk. These 

 specimens are remarkable not only for their brilliant 

 and arresting ochreous coloration, but also because 

 of the large and massive size of many of the artefacts. 

 Many of them are evidently fashioned for comfortable 

 prehension, but it is clear that the hands of the 

 ancient Cromerian people must have been much larger 

 than those of modern man. Several examples of 

 Early Chellean implements, with coarse flaking upon 

 the upper and lower surfaces, have been found at 

 the Cromer site, associated with rostro-carinates, 

 choppers, scrapers, points, partly finished specimens, 

 cores, and flakes. 



It is evident that an actual workshop-site of Early 

 Chellean age is represented at Cromer, and from its 

 position appears to be referable to the lowermost 

 stratum of the Cromer Forest Bed series of deposits. 

 The Cromer Forest Bed strata are generally regarded 

 as of Upper Pliocene age, and it seems, therefore, 

 that the earliest Chellean implements— such _ as are 

 usually found in river-terrace gravels — must in East 

 Anglia be regarded as of Pliocene date. It is of 

 interest to note that the massive human fossil jaw- 

 bone found at Heidelberg, in Germany, was supposed 

 to be of about the same antiquity as the Cromer 

 Forest Bed. The individual represented by this jaw- 

 bone would appear to have been of almost gorilla-like 

 size and strength, and it may be that the massive 

 Cromer implements which have been found were made 

 by people of the Heidelberg type. 



An animated discussion followed the reading of the 

 paper. Prof. Arthur Keith, past-president, who was 

 in the chair, said that while it would be impertinent 

 . for him to attempt to criticise Mr. Reid Moir's com- 

 munication, he considered it of outstanding import- 

 ance in the study of the antiquity of man in this 

 country. This site would appear to be the most 

 ancient workshop-floor which had yet been discovered. 



Sir William Boyd Dawkins said that no geological 

 evidence had been brought forward for the relation of 

 the flints on this site with the Forest Bed series; 

 they were no more than a foreshore accumulation of 

 flints which differed in no way from other flints found 

 on the foreshore along the whole East and South 

 Coast. Further, it was assumed that the Forest Bed 

 fauna was Pliocene ; but it had been shown more 

 than forty years ago that the Forest Bed series in- 

 cluded recent mammalia absent from the Pliocene 

 deposits of France and Italy, and, therefore, they 

 should be regarded as Early Pleistocene. 



Sir E. Ray Lankester said that the use of the terms 

 "Pliocene" and "Pleistocene" was purely arbitrary, 

 and did not affect the facts. These specimens were 

 quite unlike foreshore flints in their large size, their 

 flaking, and their coloration. Mr. S. Hazzledine 

 Warren denied that any evidence had been brought 

 forward in support of the very definite assertion of 

 date, and it was his opinion that if a boring were 

 made at the base of the cliff, as had been suggested, 

 nothing similar to the conditions on the foreshore 

 would be found at the base of the Forest Bed series. 

 Mr. Haward considered the site represented merely 

 an outcrop of one of the zones of flints which are 

 found sloping down to the sea in the neighbouring 

 cliffs. Mr. Barnes said that the case was not made 

 out. The number of implements was small, while a 

 flake afforded little as a criterion of human manufac- 

 ture. It was essential that a boring should be made 

 at the base of the cliff. Mr. Reginald Smith, on the 

 other hand, maintained that Mr. Reid Moir had made 

 out a pri^na-facie case ; it was only the question of 

 provenance which gave rise to doubt. In referring 

 to the disproportionate number of flakes on the site, 

 he mentioned one of the floors investigated at Swans- 

 combe, on which no implement-.-, but only a large 

 number of flakes, had been found. 



The series of humanly fashioned flints collected by 

 Mr. Reid Moir is to remain on exhibit for one month 

 in the rooms of the Royal Society, Burlington House, 

 where the specimens can be seen and examined by 

 those interested. 



Hydrology of the Western States of North America.^ 

 By Dr. Brysson Cunningham. 



THREE Water Supply Papers, prepared under the 

 direction of the United States Geological Survey, 

 contain features of interest respecting the natural 

 conditions which prevail in the undeveloped territory 

 between the io8th and ii8th meridians of west longi- 

 tude. 



(i) A sequence of devastating floods which swept 

 the counties of southern California in January, 1916, 

 is described in Water Supply Paper No. 426, with 

 records of the precipitation, run-off, and attendant 

 phenomena. The rainfall was heaviest and its effects 

 most disastrous in San Diego County, which for nearly 

 a month after the storm was cut off from com- 

 munication with the rest of the State. The mean 

 precipitation for the period January 14-30, in different 

 parts of the county, ranged from 20 in. to 30 in. 



' (i) "Southern California Floods of January, 1916." By H. D. McGlashan 

 and F. C. Ehert. Water Supply Paper No. 426. (i) " The Navajo 

 Country," By Herbert K. Gregory. Water Supply Paper. No 380. 

 (3) " Geology and Water Resources of Big Smoky, Clayton, and Alkali 

 Spring Valleys, Nevada." By Oscar F,. Meinzer. Water Supply Paper 

 No. 423. (Washington : Gorernraent Printing Office 1917.) 



The normal annual rainfall at San Diego is in the 

 neighbourhood of 10-15 in. As a result of the down- 

 pour the Lower Otay Dam, forming part of the reser- 

 voir system for the city of San Diego, was swept 

 away and the Sweetwater Reservoir developed serious 

 fractures. Twenty-two lives were lost in the flood 

 from the former reservoir. A huge wall of water, 

 variously described as from 6 ft. to 20 ft. in height, 

 rushed down the valley, covering the distance from 

 the dam-site to Palm City (about ten miles) in forty- 

 eight minutes, and carrying everything before it. An 

 impressive idea of the devastated area is obtained 

 from the photographs which illustrate the report. 

 There is also a large-scale map of the district. 



(2) Upon the borders of the States of Utah, New 

 Mexico, and Arizona lies an area of reservation, 

 known as the Navajo Country, set aside for indigenous 

 Indian tribes. It is a region of which very little 

 hitherto has been known, and it remains more or 

 less in a primitive condition. The area is consider- 

 able, about 25,725 square miles; it is the most exten- 



NO. 2691, VOL. IO7I 



