142 



NA TURE 



\ymie 21, 1877 



these relics are pre-glacial. The most one can say about them is 

 simply this, that the folk who used them lived in England before 

 the climax of glacial cold. When human relics are got in beds 

 of older date than those at Cromer, we shall then have a demon- 

 stration of the pre-glacial age of man in Britain. At the same 

 time the presumption is (as many geologists will admit) that 

 some portion of our ancient river-drifts and cave-deposits with 

 flint implements do really belong to pre-glacial times. In short, 

 after carefully reading the proceedings at the recent Conference, 

 I find nothing to shake me in my present belief that none of the 

 palceolithic deposits belongs to post-glacial times, but that all 

 must be relegated to inter-glacial, and probably pre-glacial ages, 

 and consequently that the pala:olithic is separated from the 

 neolithic age by the intervention of the last cold period of the 

 glacial epoch. My opinion, therefore, is still as strong as ever 

 that "until we clearly understand what was the succession of 

 changes during the ice age, it is premature to speculate upon the 

 geological age of those deposits which yield the earliest traces of 

 man in Britain." In concluding, may I be allowed to suggest to 

 the anonymous writer whose communication on the subject of the 

 Antiquity of Man appears in the number of this journal tor June 7, 

 that before he again essays to criticise my views he might do 

 well to become better acquainted with them. James Geikie 

 Perth, June 15 



Before your readers accept the statements of Messrs. Evans 

 and Hughes respecting my discovery of flint tools beneath the 

 great chalky boulder-clay, as announced in N.\ture last year, 

 may I ask them to remember that as yet I have not published 

 the evidence upon which I founded my statement ? The delay 

 has arisen from official and other causes ; and although my paper 

 is now written, it is, I have just learned, too late for reading 

 during the present session at the Geological Society. Neither of 

 the two gentlemen named is aware of the extent of my evidence, 

 for I have not, as yet, told any one about it, except the two geo- 

 lists mentioned below. As I shall sliow, there are now known 

 to me about forty localities in which the brick-earths in question 

 occur, and in most of them their relation to the boulder-clay is 

 very clear ; and even in the two or three spots in which that 

 rock is not seen in the actual section, it overlies the implement 

 beds near by on the same outcrop. The brick-earths have natu- 

 rally suffered much denudation by the boulder-clay, and I have a 

 splendid series of sections showing every phase from almost un- 

 disturbed material beneath the boulder-clay to small fragments 

 (boulders, in fact) in that deposit. I wish, also, to state, that 

 instead of four implements from two localities, as originally 

 announced, I know at present nearly 150 from six different 

 spots. The evidence is so clear and overwhelming when seen 

 en masse, that it must be convincing to all who carefully weigh 

 it. The boulder-clay which overlies the brick-eaiths in question 

 is part and parcel of the great mass of the chalky boulder-clay, a 

 formation which I have spent eight years in examining in the 

 field almost daily, of which I have mapped about 2,000 square 

 miles, and upon which I feel quite competent to form an opinion. 



Prof. Prestwich is perfectly correct in ascribing the well- 

 known palaeolithic implements found in the gravel to a time sub- 

 sequent to the formation of the chalky boulder-clay ; but that 

 only prmes those tools to be newer than the last gla<iatio}i of this 

 particttlar area. Now inasmuch as Mr. Searles V. Wood, jun., 

 long ago proved, and as everybody who examines the ground must 

 admit, that the "purple" and "hessle" boulder-clays are 

 newer than the one vve are dealing with, and as Dr. J. Geikie 

 lias shown that gravels bearing the same character and possessing 

 the same peculiar fauna as tlie well-known pala:oliihic gravels 

 (overlying, moreover, the chalky boulder-clay), piss under these 

 newer beds, it is, to say the least, a misnomer to call these gravels 

 /o.f/-glacial. They are post-glacial to this East Anglian area, 

 but not to northern England ; and the distribution of suiface- 

 beds containing palaeolithic implements- throughout Europe 

 shows that they are confined exclusively to that area which was 

 free from the erosive action of the newer and less intense ice- 

 sheets of the latter part of the " Great Ice Age." Much of the 

 misapprehension in this matter has arisen from the unfortunate 

 name of "upper" given to the chalky boulder-clay. It is 

 "upper" in East Anglia, but it is " lower" in Yorkshire. 



My discovery does not prove man to have been pre-glacial ; it 

 merely shows that he was " pre-chalky-boulder-clay," and I 

 last week obtained evidence to show that the brick-earths in 

 question belong to the "middle glacial" of Mr. Searles V. 

 Wood, jun. ; that is to say, they are newer than the Cromer 

 till, but older than the chalky boulder-clay. 



Mr. Belt is mistaken respecting the quartzite implements near 

 Brandon. They are found in gravel which is unquestionably 

 above the boulder-clay, as can be seen in hundreds of sections, 

 and the only conceivable source of that material is the boulder- 

 clay. We have, in fact, two horizons of pal.Tolithic implements, 

 one above and one below the boulder-clay, and I am in hopes 

 that the former will°be found capable of subdivision, for many 

 facts crop up in the coarse of my daily work which seem to 

 point in that direction. 



Prof. Ramsay and Dr. J. Geikie, who are eminently capable 

 of judging of glacial phenomena, have gone over the area with 

 me, and are perfectly convinced of the accuracy of my determi- 

 nations. Syijxey B. J. Skertchly 



Brandon 



Nicephore Niepce 



There is an error in one of your " Notes " of last week 

 which you may be glad to have corrected. It is not to Niepce 

 de St. Victor that the citizens of Chalons-sur- Saone (a town, by 

 the way, not to be mistaken for Chalons in the Champagne 

 country) are about to eiect a statue, but to his uncle, Joseph 

 Nicepiiore Niepce, who might well be designated as the first 

 photographer, since he it was who succeeded first of all in fixing 

 an image in the camera. In a " Life of Nicephore Niepce," ' 

 recently published by Victor Fouque. appear letters which leave 

 little doubt that in May, 1S16 Niepce had accomplished the 

 feat of fixing shadows in the camera, for in a communication of 

 that date to his brother he incloses four photographs, ol which 

 he says : " The pigeon-house is reversed on the pictures, the 

 barn, or rather the roof of the barn, being to the left, instead ol 

 the right. The white mass which you perceive to the right of 

 the pigeon-house, and which appears somewhat confuted, is the 

 reflection upon tlie paper of the pear-tree, and the black spot 

 near the summit is an opening between the branches of the 

 trees. The shadow on the right indicates the roof of the bake- 

 house." This, then, is a description of the first camera-picture 

 ever taken, and it was by reason of Niepce's inability to prevent 

 his impressions from fading afer a lapse of time that he turned 

 his attention to the bitumen of Judea process, with which he 

 produced photographs as early as 1S24, one or two specimens 

 being still among the science treasures of the British Ma-^eum. 



The name of Nicephore Niepce is little known in England. 

 And yet this should not be. As is well known he came to this 

 country in 1827, and resided at Kew in the hope to receive aid 

 and encouragement, and shortly afterwards, on his return to 

 France, entered into partnership with Daguerre to work out to- 

 gether a more practical process. When Daguerre made known 

 his discovery in 1S39, his partner had been dead two years, and 

 no mention was made of Niepce at the time Arago made his 

 famous speech announcing the discovery of Daguerreotype. 

 Specimens of the wonderful process were not long in reaching 

 this country and the first picture was placed in Faraday's 

 hands with the remark that he had never seen anything 

 like it before. But Faraday said he had. A French- 

 man, he remembered, had brought him a picture of Kew 

 Church a dozen years ago, with the quaint remark, that "the 

 sun had done it." Faraday was so certain of this that inquiries 

 were at once instituted into the matter, and in the end, a com- 

 munication was addressed by the Secretary of the Royal Society, 

 Mr. Bauer, to the Academie at Paris, a communication which 

 helped materially to substantiate the claim of the Niepce family, 

 and to obtain for the son Isidore, a pension in acknowledgment 

 of the father's services. The deed of partnership between Niepce 

 and Daguerre is still extant, but how much ol the latter's pub- 

 lished results were due to his dead partner the world will never 

 know. H. Baden Pritchard 



June 6 



Japanese Mirrors 



There is still something to be solved about the Japanese 

 mirrors, which show the figures tliat appear in relief on the back 

 in the disk of light reflected from the face. Not only does it 

 seem impossible (without some indication which I have not yet 

 met with) to tell which mirrors in a series will perform the feat, 

 but it is equally difficult to say why one bunch of leaves will, and 

 another in the same casting, will not appear in the spectrum. 



In reference to Mr. Highlcy's quotation of Mr. Prmseps' con- 

 jecture (p. 132), " that the thinnest parts, from being the hardest, 



» " La Verile sur I'lnvenlion de la Photographie." 



