150 REPORT— 1871. 



for in the reindeer-caves of bnt], +v.-'-. oo«atrie3 the four animals in question occ r 

 too-ether— the ir^^^-^*^ -"" "nfe reindeer, and the aurochs with the cave-bear. 

 In^Belgiuiii, indeed, the reindeer was pohably living in the Neolithic, Bronze, and 

 Ii'on ages, since it lived in the Hercynian forest in the days of Julius Caesar, 



A Gleam of the Saxon in the Weald. By Waiter Dendt. 



On the Relative Ages of the Flint- and Stone-Imphment Periods in Enrjland. 



£;/ J. ^S: Flower, F.G.S. 



In this paper, the author, after pointing out the great importance of the subject 

 in relation to anthropology, stated that he proposed to show that, having regard 

 to the result of recent researches and observations, the arrangement hitherto usually 

 adopted of dividing the stone age into two epochs or periods only (Palseolithic 

 and Neolithic) was insufficient, as regards England, and that for the purpose of 

 scientific investigation, that which has been called the Palreolithic, might pro- 

 perly be subdivided into at least three distinct periods. That upon geological 

 gi'ounds, the Drift-implement period must be regarded as remote by a vast in- 

 terval from the Bone-cave period, with which it has been classed by Sir Charles 

 Lyell and Sir John Lubbock, inasmuch as the gi-avels and sands which now 

 overlie the implement-bearing gravels must certainly have been deposited after 

 the implements were fonned, and the production of such considerable masses of 

 detritus can only have been the work of very extended periods of time, which had 

 been conjectured as embracing even 100,000 years. That since these implements 

 were made, it was obvious that most important geological changes had occurred, 

 and in particular, that during this interval England hadoeen severed from the con- 

 tinent of Em-ope, as the Isle of Wight had been separated from England. That in 

 Eno-land and in France the gravel in, or under which the implements were found, 

 as well as the animal remains found with them, were of precisely the same origin 

 and mineral character, and in both countries resting immediately upon the Chalk ; 

 and as further evidence that the implements were made before the separation; 

 and that thus the two countries were then inhabited, may be noticed the fact, that 

 both in the valley of the Sonime, and in that of the Little Oiise in Norfolk, the 

 implement-bearing beds are overlain by thick deposits of peat, containing precisely 

 the same vegetable and animal remains, which in both countries are quite di- 

 stinct from those of the Drift, and of a far later date — amongst others, the Beaver, 

 Bos hngifrons, Eoe, Wild Boar, and Bed Deer. 



As further evidence of the extreme antiquity of these objects, Mr. Flower also 

 drew attention to the circumstance, that hitherto no implement of the tnie di'ift- 

 type had been found north-west of a line drawn from the estuaiy of the Severn 

 to that of the Wash, between Norfolk and Lincolnshire, following the Lias escarp- 

 ment, and only a little northward of the limit of the Boulder-clay deposit ; and he 

 suggested it as by no means impossible, that when these implements were made, 

 the north of England, and perhaps all Scotland and Wales, were still submerged ; 

 and that although the implements were certainly found in Bedfordshire and NorfoUc 

 lying on Boulder-clay, those districts, not improbably, were elevated, and perhaps 

 inhabited very long before the lands now lying to the north-west became habitable. 

 The author considered it extremely improbable that either the drift implements 

 or the gravels in or imder which they are foimd, if transported by river-action, 

 should have been deposited, as had been commonly supposed, by rivei-s which 

 then ran in the same direction, and drained the same areas as now ; inasmuch as 

 they have lately been found at such elevations, and in such situations, as to preclude 

 the belief that at any period since the surface assumed its present contours, any 

 existing rivers could have eft'ected the ti'ansport ; and in support of this view several 

 recent discoveries were referred to. 



He fm-ther observed that it seemed by no means certain, as was generally 

 believed, that the makers of the flint implements were contemporary with the 

 elephants and other animals, with whose remains they were often found asso- 



