^74 Reports and Proceedings — Manchester Literary Society. 



A rock-specimen, given to tlie author many years ago by the late 

 H. W. Bristow, forms the main subject of this paper. It shows no 

 trace of original sand-grains ; it is compact, and with a fracture 

 platy to conchoidal ; small splinters of it can be fused on their 

 edges to a white, frothy glass. Under the microscope the rock is 

 decidedly tufaceous, containing small fragments chiefly of pumice, 

 less often of crystals which are apparently epidote. In the slides 

 of this rock and in some of the siliceous sinters from New Zealand 

 used for comparison, there are small patches of a brown substance 

 which may possibly be of organic origin ; in connection with it. 

 Professor Weed's discovery of algous growths in some of the New 

 Zealand sinters is mentioned. A specimen of hard breccia, also 

 from the vicinity of Builth, is described. The cement of this rock 

 is also possibly siliceous sinter, as well as some of the fragments, 

 which latter show faint evidence of the inclusion of little shreds 

 of pumice. 



II. — Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society. 



October 15th, 1901. — Mr. Charles Bailey, President, in the Chair. 



Mr. E. D. Darbishire, F.S.A., exhibited a large collection of the 

 Eolithic implements of the Kentish plateau, and illustrated with 

 map and section the outline of the denudation of the valley of the 

 Weald, leaving a drift-deposit on the remaining Chalk of the north 

 and south escarpments. 



In the process many levels of river-gravels had been fixed, and 

 partly occupied by stone implements of successive ages, mostly much 

 mixed up in the redeposition of the gravels by succeeding move- 

 ments. He described the general facies of the so-called Paleeolithio 

 implements from river deposits in France and England, and their 

 peculiar modes of manufacture by ' chipping ' or flaking, and shapes ; 

 and confessed inability to determine the uses of such tools or any 

 characteristics of the men who made them. They were fossil 

 indications of man with mind, skill, and purpose, and that was all. 

 He then referred to the late Sir Joseph Prestwich's announcement 

 of Mr. B. Harrison's great discovery of stone implements in the 

 drift covering the remaining chalk plateau, quoted important 

 adhesions, and referred to the expressions of scepticism by Sir 

 J. Evans, Professor Boyd Dawkins, Sir H. H. Howorth, and others. 



Exhibiting a very complete and well-arranged series of the plateau 

 remains, Mr. Darbishire, after claiming large personal familiarity 

 with stone implements, proceeded to vindicate the primeval and 

 distinctive character of the same by reference to : — (1) The peculiar 

 character of (a) the material used, and (6) the uniform and extreme 

 ' patination ' of most specimens. (2) The peculiar shapes of the 

 same, showing several separate designs (c) in lateral curves (like 

 bites out of a cake), sometimes duplicated with a point left between; 

 (d) in instruments with bold lateral curves on each side of a strong, 

 sometimes sharp, sometimes obtuse point; (e) in flat flints, with 

 chipped edges more or less all round ; and (/) in repudiation of 

 a vague dismissal of the remains in question as ' wastrels.' 



