Correspondence — J. Reid Moir — R. 8. Newall. 191 



COE.K.E!SI 3 01SriDE3SrOEl. 



FLINTS FROM THE SUFFOLK BONE BED. 



Sir, — On p. 64 of a recently published paper, entitled "Flints" 

 (Cambridge Antiquarian Society's Communications, vol. xviii), 

 Professor McKenny Hughes, F.R.S., in dealing with the question 

 of the sub- Crag flint implements I have discovered, makes the 

 following statement: "Mr. Reid Moir has long been trying to test 

 this question by observation and experiment, and has arrived at the 

 conclusion that nature does not produce the forms in question. I 

 must, however, say that I have failed to arrive at the same conclusion, 

 but find that identical forms are produced under shore conditions 

 which must have been similar to those under which the Suffolk Bone 

 Bed was laid down." The definite nature of this statement induced 

 me to pay a visit to the Sedgwick Museum, Cambridge, to see and 

 handle these flints, flaked under present-day shore conditions, which 

 were said to be "identical" with the sub-Crag specimens — a typical 

 series of which I took with me for comparison. The examination of 

 Professor Hughes' beach specimens showed me at once that none of 

 the forms labelled " Bee d'aigle " bore any real resemblance to the 

 rostro-carinate specimens recovered from the Suffolk Bone Bed, and 

 represented obviously naturally broken flints which no one familiar 

 with the sub-Crag specimens could ever regard as in any way similar, 

 and the same may with confidence be stated of the beach examples 

 purporting to represent other sub-Crag forms. I have no wish to say 

 any harsh thing about Professor Hughes, for whom I entertain a great 

 respect and regard, but I think he has been unwittingly misleading 

 by his misuse of the word " identical " in his paper, and that it is not 

 quite fair to Sir Pay Lankester and me — and liable to fog the issue — to 

 label specimens in the Sedgwick Museum " Bee d'aigle " which bear 

 no real resemblance to the sub-Crag rostro-carinate specimens. 



J. Reid Mont. 

 12 St. Edmund's Boad, 

 Ipswich. 



GUIDE TO THE FOSSIL REMAINS OF MAN IN THE BRITISH 



MUSEUM. 1 



Sir, — I have read with much interest the review of the Guide to 

 the Fossil Remains of Man in the British Museum, published in the 

 Geological Magazine. "Would it not be possible in the second edition 

 to allow the Neanderthal man (as shown in fig. 12) a scapula? Such 

 an omission is sure to lead to some silly mistakes on the part of the 

 general public, for whom I presume this guide is written. 



R. S. Newall. 

 Fisherton de la Mere House, 

 Wylye, Wilts. 



March 15, 1915. 



] See Geol. Mag. for March, 1915, p. 129. 



