EARLY MAN 



ferruginous deposit, as it has been shown that the colouring matter 

 may have been contributed by the flint itself, the iron being liberated 

 in the process of alteration. 1 Neolithic implements rarely if ever ex- 

 hibit these characteristics, although their surfaces are often whitened 

 or rendered of a milky colour and smooth or glassy to the touch. 



Palaeolithic implements vary in shape from a pointed form not 

 unlike a flattened pear to a flattened ovoid shape with a cutting edge 

 all round. There are also large flakes, scrapers, and, of course, the 

 cores or nodules of flint from which flakes have been struck off. 

 Generally speaking the implements are such as would be useful for 

 scraping, chopping, cutting and piercing purposes, and they do not 

 exhibit the specialization of form for particular uses which is found 

 in neolithic implements. 



Many of the palaeolithic implements found in Surrey have been 

 procured from beds of drift gravel, most of the stones of which are 

 much battered and abraded. The implements show the same character- 

 istics, and have in most cases been modified by drift wear, particularly 

 upon the angles and ridges. 



Perhaps an even more significant fact, as pointing to the geological 

 changes which have occurred since the implements were made, is to be 

 found in the position which the gravel beds containing implements now 

 occupy high above the present valleys. From its very nature and the 

 causes which have produced it we know that gravel of this character must 

 have been deposited in the lowest parts of the valleys of the district in 

 which it now occurs. Since it is now found high up on the sides of 

 the valleys, or even in terraces which seem to have a closer relation to 

 the tableland which the present valleys traverse than to the valleys 

 themselves, it follows that these lower valleys must have been eroded 

 subsequently to the time when what is now the high level gravel was 

 laid down. Owing to the practically indestructible nature of gravel we 

 should expect to find, and as a matter of fact we do find, that much of 

 the harder portions of the high level gravel has been carried down to 

 the lower levels where it is mixed up with other materials. 



It is these facts which give so much importance to discoveries of 

 palaeolithic implements among beds of undisturbed drift gravels, etc., 

 and although the knowledge so obtained does not enable us to fix the 

 exact number of years by which the palaeolithic age is removed from 

 our own, because we cannot ascertain the rate at which the natural 

 forces have operated, yet it gives us good reason to infer that there 

 was a great gap between the age of palaeolithic man and that of neo- 

 lithic man. 



In attempting a brief sketch of the story of Surrey in the palaeo- 

 lithic age it will therefore be convenient to pay special attention to the 

 positions in the drift gravels, etc., in which the implements occur. 



A glance at the map of Surrey will show that one of the chief 

 physical features in the surface of the county is the long range of chalk 



1 Quarterly Journal of the Geo/ogical Society, Ivi. 8, 9. 



229 Q* 



