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technical aspect ; but I believe there is a general feeling among the unscientific 

 public that conclusions are drawn with very great freedom with regard to 

 flint implements, and especially with reference to the pushing back through 

 them of man's existence on the face of the earth. When the word "prehistoric" 

 is used, it is assumed that it denotes great antiquity ; whereas it may refer to 

 a stage in one nation contemporaneous with the historic period of another, 

 and in reality quite modern. I am rather sorry that, in his very able paper, 

 the author has used such extreme caution in his inferences and conclusions 

 with regard to the points of contact between archaeology and geology, because 

 it is iu them that the main interest on the part of the public lies. As to the im- 

 plements themselves, we cannot, without some amount of training, appreciate 

 their various stages of elaboration ; but we are greatly interested in knowing 

 at what point we may join these things on to historic facts, so as in some 

 degree to approximate chronologically the prehistoric to the historic period of 

 human existence in Great Britain and Gaul. Are we to suppose that our 

 prehistoric ancestors lived on the very verge of European civilisation of 

 which the western parts of France and Great Britain were the outlying 

 provinces ; and that the Esquimaux of the present day are to be con- 

 sidered as in a similar state because they stiU use these flint implements ? 

 This subject is apt to be discussed with an indefiniteness and vagueness that 

 seems hardly ever to lead, or to be likely to lead, to any useful conclusion. 

 If Mr. Mello is able to dispel some of this vagueness, there are many in 

 this room who would be much obliged to him. (Hear, hear.) 



Mr. J. Kendall. — I simply rise to ask a question. I should like to 

 know how it is that, among the large number of these implements which are 

 produced here and elsewhere, so few present any indication of the way in 

 which they have been used ? Nothing would appear to be more natural 

 than that an uncivilised race, not possessing or knowing the use of metals, 

 should convert flints into such implements as they might require for the 

 various purposes of life. But when we look at the flints on this table, and 

 at those which have so often been produced before, and bear in mind that 

 they are all specially selected specimens, we cannot fail to notice how few there 

 are of the entire number on which any apparent marks of fitness for their in- 

 tended use are visible ? Their adaptation to the purposes of arrows has been 

 already mentioned, and we all know that such things, when projected with 

 more or less force, would be of use, though they may not exhibit much in- 

 herent strength. But with regard to the other flints now on this table there is 

 scarcely one, as it seems to me, which a savage, having sense enough to 

 make it, would not presumably have fashioned into a more useful shape. 

 There is only one which exhibits what I should have thought every 

 one would have displayed. I allude to that which is marked " No. 18 " in 

 the illustrations at the end of the paper. This has a handle by which it 

 might be fastened to a shaft. If a man had chipped a flint for use as a 

 chisel, would he not have either made dents in it, or other'^yise so shaped 

 it, that it might be fastened to a handle ? There are one or two of 

 these flints that might have been used without handles, — those for 



