WORKED FLINTS. 79 



our own day in the aborigines of the Andaman and Philippine 

 Inlands, and that their characters, both physical and linguistic, have 

 been fused with those of other races which have reached the 

 Solomon Islands both from the Malay Archipelago to the west, and 

 from the islands of Micronesia and Polynesia to the east. The 

 ])resent natives of this group may, in truth, be considered as the 

 result of the fusion of the Negrito aborigines with the Malayan, 

 Micronesian, and Polvnesian intruders. 



The second interesting point with reference to these ancient 

 dint implements is concerned with their original source. Professor 

 Liversidge, in drawing attention to my specimens, which he ex- 

 hibited at a meeting of the Royal Society of New South Wales in 

 December, 1883, remarked that this discovery of flints in these 

 i-egions afforded a very strong proof of the probable presence of 

 true chalk of cretaceous age in the South Sea Islands, and he 

 alluded to a soft white limestone undistinguishable from chalk, which 

 had been previously brought from New Ireland by Mr. Brown, the 

 Wesleyan missionary.^ Chalk-rocks came under my observation in 

 the Solomon Islands ; but in no case was I able to find embedded 

 flints {vide Trans. Roy. Soc. Edin., Vol. 32, Part 3). I think 

 it, liowevei", highly probable that when the interior of one of the 

 large islands such as Guadalcanar has been explored, older chalk 

 formations containing flints will be discovered. The island of 

 Ulaua, which I was unable to visit, would probably afibrd some clue 

 as to the source of these flints. Although in all likelihood this 

 island possesses the general geological structure of the neighbouring 

 island of Ugi, which is described on page \di. yet it possesses one 

 peculiar feature. Mr. Brenchley,^ when landing on the beach of 

 this island of Ulaua in 1865, picked up a great many ])ieces of flint 

 scattered about among the broken-up coral, and he wondered where 

 they came from. Captain Macdonald, a resident trader in this part 

 of the group, informed me that flints are abundant on the beaches 

 of this island, together with fragments of a white chalk-like rock.^ 



^"Journal of the Eoyal Society of New South Wales:" vol. xvii., p. 223; t-jrfealso 

 " Geolog. Mag." Dec, 1877. 3Ir. H. B. Brady is at present engaged ia working out the 

 Foraminifera of tliis New Ireland rock. Its age, though still sub judice, is probably compara- 

 tively recent. 



2 " Cruise of the ' Curacoa, ' " p. 255. ' 



^ Should any of my readers in the Western Pacific have the opportunity of visiting the 

 island of Ulaua, it would be well worth their while t<^ pay careful attention to the mode of 

 Occurrence of these flints. I am of the opinion that imbedded flints will bo found in the 

 r(cent rocks of this island. 



