240 Correspondence — J. Reid Moir. 



the view that in chondritic meteorites the less the amount of 

 nickeliferous iron the richer it is in nickel. 



Dr. G. F. Herbert Smith: "A Student's Goniometer." This 

 instrument, which was made by Messrs. J. H. Steward, Ltd., is of 

 the type in which the direction of reference is given by the 

 reflection of some distant object in a mirror, and in which the axis 

 of the graduated circle is horizontal. A ball and socket joint 

 provides the mirror with all the necessary adjustments in direction, 

 and it is also movable vertically in the plane of the axis of the 

 circle. The crystal holder is provided with a simple and convenient 

 form of adjustment which enables a crystal to be measured, as 

 regards one-half, without removal from the wax. A pointer on a 

 swinging arm facilitates the setting of the crystal in the axis of the 

 circle. 



CORRESP02STIDEITCE. 



MOUSTEEIAN FLAKE-IMPLEMENTS. 



Sir, — Mr. Henry Dewey, in his note " On some Palaeolithic 

 Flake-implements from the High Level Terraces of the Thames 

 Valley" (Geol. Mag., February, 1919, pp. 49-57), in dealing with 

 the fact that flint-implements of what is known as the "cave" 

 period, are generally made from flakes, states, on p. 55, that 

 " some are carefully worked on a disc-face, a facetted platform 

 prepared, and by a single blow on this platform a complete imple- 

 ment detached from the core. By this means half the work 

 expended on their manufacture was saved ..." The comparison 

 here is with the earlier Palaeolithic "cave" implements exhibiting 

 flake-scars on both faces. But the view, which for some unaccount- 

 able reason seems widely held, that the flake-implement of Mousterian 

 man was a labour-saving device is erroneous. The process of making 

 a flake-implement was as follows : a large nodule or block of flint 

 was first carefully shaped by flaking into a tortoise-like form, and 

 this process almost certainly took as long as the manufacture of 

 a normal Chellean or Acheulean cave - implement. But when 

 Mousterian man had made what may be regarded as his core- 

 implement, he proceeded to detach a flake from it, and after 

 trimming it round the edges, to use this flake as an implement. 

 And in many cases the core, over wbich so much labour had been 

 spent, was thrown away as useless. I fail to understand how it is 

 possible to regard this method of implement- making as demonstrating 

 that Mousterian man was able to produce his flake-implements with 

 half the labour expended by the earlier Palaeolithic people on their 

 pointed and ovate artefacts. In fact, I see no connexion between 

 the Chellean and Acheulean core-implements and the flake-implements 

 of the Mousterians. The technique of the latter is totally different, 

 and was probably practised by a different race of people from the 

 Acheuleans. 



J. Be id Mora. 



One House, Ipswich. 



March 27, 1919. 



