376 Correspondence — Prof. Prestinch — Dr. C. Callaicay. 



figured in plates v to ix of " Collected Papers," tbey should be 

 found in all such shingle of whatsoever age. None are forthcoming. 



If the waves had possessed that power, we should not need to 

 go beyond our beach-girt southern shores or our numerous river- 

 gravels. Challenged long ago to produce an implement of the true 

 plateau type from a recent beach, the only specimen that has been 

 put forward as such is one from the beach at Aldborough. I have 

 examined this specimen carefully. It is a naturalli/ split pebble of 

 the Westleton pebble beds, of which there are millions, entire and 

 split, on the adjacent shore. These, in fact, constitute a very large 

 proportion of the beach itself, and those of them which happened 

 to be split have had their edges chipped and blunted by the pounding 

 they have undergone on the shore, so that to that extent they 

 resemble the one plateau specimen figured, fig. 4, pi. ii, in the 

 work before mentioned, with the essential exception that whereas 

 the latter often retain the sharp edges which adapted them for 

 scraping, in the former the edges, which are also worn and blunt, 

 were never suited for that purpose. It is, in fact, one of those 

 natural flints which simulate in general outline a worked flint, and 

 in this case I am willing to admit that the simulation of this one 

 simple form of the plateau flint is very good and very deceptive. 

 Scores of such natural forms, imitating even the well-defined shapes 

 of the lance-head Palfeolithic implements, have been found in 

 gravel beds. 



However, to put the matter to another test, I again repeat the 

 former challenge, and am ready to exchange the two volumes of my 

 "Geology" with any young (or old) dissentient, for half a dozen 

 shore flints (not derived) of any of the plateau types figured in the 

 five plates above named. 



I have noticed with regret that in discussing the minor points, 

 the essential and important fact of the plateau implements being 

 possibly the work of the earliest known members of the human 

 stock, has been too much overlooked. "While anthropologists have 

 sought for and described the stone implements of modern savages, 

 from the poles to the equator, and speculated on their uses, they 

 have with a few rare exceptions shown an unaccountable indifi'erence, 

 not only in the plateau specimens themselves as specimens, but also 

 an unwillingness to give the subject that attention which alone 

 could settle the question. Here is a problem of high importance 

 with respect to the habits, mode of life, and characters of primitive 

 man, as exhibited in a wonderful profusion of their rude tools, and 

 which is nevertheless neglected and rejected, not from personal 

 investigation, but on an assumed impossibility and by an abnegation 

 of personal responsibility. Surely the subject is deserving of further 

 investigation. I wait without anxiety the results of my challenge. 



Shoreham, Kent, July 15, 1895. JoSEPH PreSTWICH. 



DR. CALLAWAY AND METASOMATOSIS. 

 Sir, — The letter of the Kev. J. F. Blake in last month's 

 GEOLOGiCAii Magazine does not call for lengthened comment. 



