452 Geological Society. 



the dental plates, and must be classed as a Beticularia ; while 

 quite smooth forms with similar plates also occur {Sp. lata, Erown, 

 and Sp. glaherrhnus, de Koninck), But other forms called Sj). 

 fjlahra seem to have been derived from radially costate ancestors. 

 The use of the generic name Martlnia for various smooth Spiriferids 

 of the Devonian and Carboniferous thus becomes wholly unjusti- 

 fiable, as it simply denotes a stage of catagenetic development at 

 which several diflerent stocks of Spirifers arrive. As the outcome 

 of this study the Author restricts the genus Spirifer, and allocates 

 several British and foreign species among the genera Fusella, 

 CJioristites, Trigonotreta, Brachj/thyris, Martinia, and Reiicidaria. 

 He also gives in an Appendix a revised explanation of Davidson's 

 plates xi & xii of the Monograph of Carboniferous Brachiopods. 



December 18th, 1907.— Sir Archibald Geikie,K.C.B., D.C.L., Sc.D., 

 Sec.R.S., President, in the Chair. 



The following communication was read : — 



' Some Kecent Discoveries of Palasohthic Implements.' By 

 Sir John Evans, K.C.B., D.C.L., LL.D., F.E.S., For.Sec.G.S. 



By the courtesy of Mr. Worthington Smith, the Author is 

 enabled to call attention to some recent discoveries of Palaeolithic 

 implements on the southern borders of Bedfordshire and in the 

 north-western part of Hertfordshire. In addition to the discovery 

 of a Palaeolithic floor at Caddington brickfield, at between 550 and 

 590 feet above sea-level, implements have since been found on the 

 surface of the ground at 600 and 760 feet respectively ; while a 

 good ovate implement was found in thin, water-laid material, at 

 651 feet O.D. In Hertfordshire, Palseolithic implements have been 

 found at Great Gaddesdon, at a brickfield about 1| miles north-east 

 of Hemel Hempstead, and at Bedmond, 2 to 2\ miles south-east of 

 the last locality. The drifts which cap the hills in North-West 

 Hertfordshire seem to be of very variable origin ; and a great part 

 of the material is derived from clay-deposits of Eocene age, but 

 little remanies. It seems to the Author that it is safest not to 

 invoke river-action for the formation of the high-level deposits, 

 which extend over a wide area and are in the main argillaceous and 

 not gravelly or sandy in character, but to adopt Mr. Worthington 

 Smith's view that in early times lakes or marshes existed in these 

 implementit'erous spots, the borders of which were inhabited by 

 Palteolithic Man. The evidence that he has brought forward as to 

 the implements having, in some of the Caddington pits, been 

 manufactured on the spot, most fuUy corroborates this view. 



