176 THE EARLIEST MEN 



comparable to the operations of nature. Some- 

 thing similar may perhaps be said as to the dis- 

 covery that " eoliths " can be and are produced 

 by the revolutions of an iron rake, in a mixture of 

 water and chalk (containing flints) and clay, in the 

 process of cement making as practised near 

 Mantes. 



But the most crushing piece of evidence is that 

 brought forward by the learned Abbe Breuil,* 

 who has found " eoliths " in Lower Eocene sands 

 in Clermont, with the detached flakes in situ, 

 showing how the process has taken place. He has 

 proved conclusively that these so-called implements 

 can be made by one process of nature, and that a 

 process which must have been in operation during 

 long ages, and even at this present moment, and 

 that process is the gradual movements of strata 

 whilst settling down under pressure of the soil. 

 This pressure causes the flint nodules to be 

 squeezed against one another, and thus flakes to 

 be detached which eventuate in the " eolith." 

 Now it may be taken for granted that no imple- 

 ment or so-called implement can be accepted as 

 unquestionably the work of man's hands, unless it 

 it quite clear that it cannot owe its shape to any 

 other cause. It has been shown that " eoliths " 

 can be produced by purely natural means. There- 

 fore it cannot be shown that any of them were the 

 works of the hands of man. Nevertheless the fact 

 remains that we ought to expect to find something 

 much more rude than the comparatively finished 

 implements which have yet to be dealt with. The 



* DAnthropologie, 1910, vol. xxi, p. 385. 



