Ii8 Notes and Comments. 



the Coal Age, and the paper is well illustrated by photographs^ 

 restorations, etc. The illustration reproduced herewith, by 

 the permission of the author and of Messrs. Williams and 

 Norgate, is a distinct advance upon the old-fashioned repre- 

 sentations of coal floras. 



' EARLY ' MAN AGAIN. 



' In fulfilment of a promise he had made to Mr. Reid Moir,' 

 Prof. W. J. Sollas recently occupied a considerable amount of 

 the valuable time of the Geological Society of London in con- 

 nexion with a paper ' On a Flaked Flint from the Red Crag.' 

 The flint was found by Mr. Moir near Ipswich, but Prof. Sollas 

 admitted that the specimen was not indisputably of human 

 workmanship, and that ' it is eminently a case of "not proven." ' 

 Prof. P. G. H. Bcswell, who knows the geology of the district 

 well, stated that the stratigraphical position of the bed was a 

 matter of extreme doubt. ' From the time of the first discovery 

 of these sub-Crag flints he had pointed out that the deposit 

 from which most of the described and figured specimens had 

 been obtained was not in situ— indeed, was one of a series of 

 deposits highly disturbed by glacial action.' This seems to be 

 borne out by Mr. Moir's own experience with the ' Ipswich 

 man ' skeleton. 



' NOT PROVEN.' 



Mr. Reginald Smith stated ' if the object of the paper was 

 to open a discussion of the whole problem, he considered it 

 belated ; and if it was merely to make another addition to the 

 suspense account, such a stupendous theory ought, in his 

 opinion, to have been based on the best material available, not 

 on one second-rate specimen. The author had rejected, as 

 purety natural, a much more striking specimen in the British 

 Museum.' Mr. R. M. Deeley explained how flints were fractured 

 and chipped in pipes formed in the Chalk. 



Distribution of the Grey Seal.— With reference to Mr. H. B. 

 Booth's note {antea, p. iii), I may add that since the publica- 

 tion of my Vertebrate Fauna of North Wales I have obtained 

 many additional data from this area. These point to the 

 conclusion that many observers have confused together the 

 two species — Common and Grey Seal. Several of the examples 

 recorded in my Fauna under the head of ' Common Seal ' 

 were undoubtedly Grey Seals. Furthermore I am now satisfied 

 that the latter is the only seal that is a resident and breeds off 

 the Welsh coast. On the other hand the Common Seal occurs 

 on the Welsh coast only as an occasional and ii regular visitor, 

 chiefly in winter. I have in hand a Supplement and epitome 

 of the Fauna which will be published as soon as conditions in 

 regard to paper and print allow ! — H, E, Forrest. 



Naturalist,, 



