XV 



ably artificial ; but he protested against their being regarded as 

 similar to, or of like origin with, the latter. — He would remark, 

 too, that at the last meeting of the Koyal Society, their Royal 

 Medal — one of their highest compliments — was awarded to Mr. 

 Prestwich, among other reasons, for his Memoirs on Flint Imple- 

 ments as found associated with the remains of Animals of extinct 

 species, both in England and France. Under these circumstances, 

 he thoiTght that this Institution ought to be chary of committing 

 itself to an opinion that so many eminent men, possessing great 

 powers of observation, had been grossly mistaken ■\vith regard to 

 the objects they undertook to examine. At the same time, he 

 thought it was an open question — how these objects came where 

 they were found ; and that this question should be kept apart from 

 the more general one — whether or not they were artificial. 



Dr. Barham stated that one of the members of this Institu- 

 tion—Mr. Pattison, a very able geologist, adopted the opinion 

 that many of those flints were artificial, but that the geological 

 stratum, near Amiens, in which they were found, was not of an 

 age so remote as to discredit generally received opinions concerning 

 the antiquity of mankind. It was the opinion also of M. Elie cle 

 Beaumont that there was no proof of extreme antiquity in the geo- 

 logical formation referred to. Dr. Barham quite agreed with Dr. 

 Jago that many of the flints on the table, from France, could not 

 be placed in the same category as those from this county — such as 

 had been sent. by Mr. Hext, from Dosmary Pool. Of many of the 

 flints before them, as of the arrowheads, it would be as unreason- 

 able to say that they were made by natural causes, as it would be 

 to affirm the same of a watch picked up casually. — In the east of 

 this County, a very beautiful specimen might be seen of what could 

 be done with stone impleinents, in a stool of hard wood, in one 

 piece, in the possession of Mr. Furneaux, the Vicar of St. Ger- 

 mans; it was brought home by his relation, the Commander of 

 the ship which accompanied Captain Cook ; and its beautiful form 

 and exquisite finish showed that it did not much matter what 

 sort of tools a good workman had. 



Dr. Barham proceeded to read a Paper by Mr. Kelly, of 

 Yealmpton, on " Celtic Remains on Dartmoor." It gave an ac- 

 count of some very interesting discoveries which had been made 

 near the higher part of the river Yealm, and especially of some ex- 

 cavated pieces of granite, which evidently had been used, in early 

 times, as moulds for blocks of tin. — In 1850, Mr. Rodd, of Tre- 

 bartha, furnished this Institution with an account of a similar dis- 

 covery in that neighbourhood ; and sent to the Museum, a Stone 



