^i[ l}}orf|itI f^u\i$. 



By Professor J. BUCKMAN, F.L.S., F.G.S., d-c 



jLTHOUGrH the study of antiquities has for centuries 

 continued to be a favourite pursuit, and every object 

 wbicb could illustrate the history and pto-suits of various 

 peoples have been scrutinised with the greatest care, yet it is 

 interesting to note that ivorhed flints by the hundred have been 

 scattered about our fields, and yet it is but comparatively recently 

 that they have been recognised as such ; nay, on the contrary, 

 forms, many of which are now recognised as being very 

 elaborately worked, were attributed to accident, or if admitted 

 to have been fashioned by the hand of man, it was thought to be 

 without any adequate object or purpose. 



Th3 finding of flint implements at' Abbeville, in the valley of 

 the Somme, by M. Boucher de Perthes during his Geological 

 investigations, woiild seem to have connected these objects with 

 Geological researches ; hence we find that in 1860, and again in 

 1862, Mr. Jolin Evans, F.S.A., F.G.S., read papers before the 

 Society of Antiquaries, tending to show that worked flints were 

 part of the history of the newer tertiary gravels, and that they 

 were found in deposits with the remains of different extinct 

 mammals, such as the Elephas primiffenius, Bos primigenius, 

 Rhinoceras tichorinus, Felis s]}el<£a, Cervus magaceros, and others. 

 However, it is now found, that so far from worked flints 



