DISCOVERY 



319 



and Mr. Westlake's collection of French implements 

 at Fordingbridge, as well as Mr. Warren's collection 

 of naturally fractured flints. The report of this Com- 

 mission has now been presented to the International 

 Institute and has recently been published. [Revue 

 Anthropologique, 1923, pp. 53-67.) 



The Report of the International Commission 



The report consists of two parts, one dealing with 

 the geological conditions of the ifind, the other, in 

 part by M. Capitan, deahng with the archffiological 

 question. 



The geological section, b)' MM. Lohest and Four- 

 marier, deals at greatest length with the deposits in 

 an abandoned quarry at Thorington Hall. Here at 

 the base of the excavation lies the London Clay 

 (Eocene). Above this is the Red Crag (Pliocene), con- 

 taining fossil shells (Neptiinea contraria, Peditnciilus 

 glycimeris, Natica, etc.), some broken, others intact, 

 with the two valves still joined. At the base of the 

 Red Crag in a detritus bed including fragments of 

 London Clay and unrolled flints, in which are found 

 the specimens which it is claimed are the products 

 of intentional fashioning by human agency. After a 

 careful examination of this site, the authors of this 

 section of the report, relying upon the appearance of 

 the stratification and the occurrence of these fossils, 

 which are of a type associated with Tertiarj' deposits, 

 affirm that without any doubt it is undisturbed and of 

 Pliocene age. Other sites were examined. Here, 

 however, while deposits assigned to the Red Crag 

 overlay Eocene sands and clays and the bed at the 

 base produced humanly fashioned flints, in the absence 

 of characteristic fossils such as were found at Thor- 

 ington Hall, it was not considered possible to fix the 

 age of the flints beyond question as contemporary 

 with those deposits. 



These conclusions are supported by a supplement ar3- 

 report by MM. Hamal-Nandrin and Fraipont. 



In the report on the archaeological problem M. Capi- 

 tan gives the result of a rigorous test. Taking the 

 collections of these implements, in number roughly a 

 hundred, he rejected approximately one-half as being 

 in any way possibly open to doubt. All rostro- 

 carinates were included among the doubtful. From 

 the remainder, about half were set aside as being 

 probably of human origin ; but of the remainder, some 

 twenty in all, he was of the opinion that there could 

 be no doubt whatever that they were the work of 

 man or of some subhuman percursor of man. And, 

 indeed, several members of the Commission have 

 pointed out that if this residue had been found among 

 the rougher implements of a Mousterian find, no 

 question would ever have been raised as to their 

 human origin. 



And here for the moment the matter rests. The 

 general impression left by the report is that the ques- 

 tion has been investigated in a thoroughly careful and 

 scientific manner and that the report is scrupulously 

 fair to both sides. On the archaeological question 

 M. Capitan's vast experience and his sound judgment 

 must carry great weight. The geological evidence is 

 beyond cavil, and until it has been possible for some- 

 one to show that on the archaeological question the 

 judgment of M. Capitan and his colleagues is at fault, 

 this report would appear to justify the conclusion 

 that one site at least has produced indubitable 

 evidence of Tertiary man in East Anglia. 



The Latest Methods of 



Determining Star 



Distances 



By William J. S. Lockyer, M.A., Ph.D., 

 F.R.A.S. 



Director o/ the Norman Lockyer Observatory, SalcLiiibe Hill, Sidmouth 



A KNOWLEDGE of the distances of the stars is one of 

 the most essential requirements of modern astronomy, 

 and its importance in the problem of exploring and 

 understanding the universe is fundamental. 



Otherwise it would be difficult, if not impossible, to 

 obtain any information concerning the actual bright- 

 ness of the stars or their sizes, masses, densities, and 

 other characteristics — all essential parts of any intelli- 

 gent account of the universe and without which our 

 knowledge would be wholly parochial. 



• 



Early Methods 



Acting on the assumption that the brighter a star 

 is, therefore the nearer it must be to us, the early 

 astronomers made an attempt to arrive at an approxi- 

 mate acquaintance with the distances and consequent 

 distribution of the stars in the universe. Even then 

 no idea of their actual distances was secured, but simply 

 their relative distances. 



Observations of the stars, night after night and year 

 by year, by means of the Transit instrument or 

 Transit Circle led astronomers to determine the posi- 

 tion of stars with very great accuracy. It was soon 

 noticed that some stars changed their places owing to 



