Notes and Comments. y 



A prehistorian's geology. 

 Mr. J. Reid Moir goes on to say: — "I am quite familiar 

 with striated flints in boulder clay, and have described their 

 nature and characteristics with some care and detail (see ' The 

 Striation of Flint Surfaces,' Man, Vol. XIV, No., n, November, 

 191 4). It appears to me that it would have been almost as 

 well if your reviewer had made himself acquainted with this 

 fact before accusing me of a lack of ' an elementary knowledge 

 of geology.' It may even be that my knowledge of the con- 

 stituents of boulder-clay surpasses his own. But in any case, 

 I feel justified in asking that in future your reviewer may take 

 the trouble to possess himself of at least an elementary know- 

 ledge of my work before essaying to criticise it in a public 

 journal." 



ARCHEOLOGY AND GEOLOGY. 



As already stated, we have read, marked, and tried to 

 digest Mr. J. Reid Moir's numerous epistles, and we know 

 all he has written in Man, and while we did not necessarily 

 imply that the cap would fit him, we still maintain that 

 anyone trying to prove that any human bones or wrought 

 implements are of extraordinarily great age, the person at- 

 tempting to do so should have at least an elementary knowledge 

 of geology. We do not for one moment wish to compare our 

 knowledge of glacial beds with that of Mr. J. Reid Moir. 

 Judging from his writings, his knowledge in that direction is 

 unique. We know no geologist who would vie with him. 

 Mr. J. Reid Moir once certainly did publish some of his obser- 

 vations on boulder clay. Let us see what happened. 



THE IPSWICH SKELETON. 



In the Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society of East Anglia, 

 Vol. I., part 2, Mr. J. Reid Moir contributed a paper on ' The 

 occurrence of a Human Skeleton in a Glacial Deposit at Ipswich.' 

 Together with ' expert ' opinions, it occupied sixteen pages, 

 and three plates, and is illustrated by photographs, drawings, 

 sections, etc ; altogether an elaborate business. One of the 

 plates shows Mr. J. Reid Moir with his ' left arm ' resting on 

 a ' block of clay.' And it's a very good photograph too. 

 His paper includes a report signed by himself and three other 

 local prehistorians. This contains the following : — 



A SIGNED REPORT. 



' We, the undersigned, were present at, and superintended, 

 the digging out of the human remains found at Messrs. Bolton 

 and Laughlin'spit, Ipswich, on Saturday, October 7th, 1911. We 

 all most carefully examined the section of decalcified boulder 

 clay, under which the bones lay, before any digging commenced, 

 and were absolutely convinced that no grave had ever been 

 dug on the spot before. This opinion was confirmed (1) By 



1917 Jan.l. 



