Reports and Proceedings — Royal Society of N. S. Wales. 571 



ornaments, utensils, tools, or weapons; relics of the life-abodes 

 or skeletal remains. Thus archEeology and geology have met in 

 the study of very many interesting exposures of archaic remains ; 

 and now attention is directed to Harlyn Bay, near Padstow, in 

 Cornwall. Here a prehistoric grave-ground and a recognizable 

 hut near by form an interesting picture of long past times, framed 

 on one side with the great Palasozoic crags of the Bay, on the 

 other hand passing into the wide Atlantic with its mysteries of 

 sunken lands and lost Atlantis. 



The details have been preserved by the thick coating of shore- 

 sand derived in ages past, partly from broken sea-shells and partly 

 by sea and wind from rocks and strata no longer visible. 



The neighbouring country is characterized by the tumuli and 

 flint weapons of people of the later Stone-age. But on the shore 

 of the Bay, in making foundations for a new house, there were 

 • found beneath 15 feet of sand at least a hundred slab-made cists 

 or stone graves, with bones of the ancient people, accompanied by 

 many flakes of the hardest slate of the vicinity. These bits of slate 

 had been deftly trimmed into pointed and sharp-edged knives, 

 besides awls, scrapers, hammers, etc. Some are shown in plates 

 iv, V, and vi. The use of slate for tools and utensils is illustrated 

 with reference to other observers abroad and at home. Some small 

 flint flakes and tools from near Harlyn are shown in plate vii. 



The slabs of slate and flagstones largely used for the sides, ends, 

 and covers of the cists were obtained from the rocks near by 

 (known as ' Devonian ' in systematic geology). In some cases 

 blocks of stone had evidently been dropped directly on the head 

 of the dead or dying persons laid in the graves. In some graves 

 the whole skeleton had been intentionally flattened by the fall of 

 the upper slab. Mr. Bullen has carefully quoted the descriptions 

 given by some authors of such maltreatment of the dead or dying 

 occupants of new graves ; also as to the occasional custom of 

 separated limbs being arranged in burial ; and indeed, further, he 

 has to allude to the sacrificial imbedding of a living victim, for he 

 has noticed evidently a more or less analogous case under some 

 of the old stonework. Thus there are here subjects of study for 

 the archaeologist in the graves, and for the geologist in the 

 surroundings. This little book, with its numerous plates and 

 figures, abundantly proves this ; and the author's particularly careful 

 collateral allusions to analogous customs among various ancient 

 and archaic people give much interest and instruction to the reader. 



lasiFOiaTS j^i<rjD lE^ieoazBEiDiiiTOS. 



EoYAL Society of New South Wales. 



(From the Abstract of Proceedings, September 3rd, 1902.) 



Professor Warren, M. Inst. C.E., etc., President, in the Chair. 

 Among others, the following paper was read : " Meteoric Dusts, 

 New South Wales," by Professor Liversidge, M.A., LL.D., F.K.S. 



