IV. — On recent Flint Finds in the South-West of England. — By 

 Nicholas Whitley, one of the Honoriiry Secretaries of the 

 Roijal Institution of Cornwall. 



Read at the Spring Meeting, May 25, 1866. 



IN a Paper inserted in No. II of our Journal, I described the 

 FKnt-flakes wliicli are so numerous in the soil along the coast- 

 line of Croyde Bay, and which have been assumed to be the 

 " arrow-heads " and " flint knives " of a prse- Adamite race of men. 

 I had formed a contrary opinion. From their number, position, 

 gradation in size, and gradation in form, I inferred that they were 

 formed by natural causes, and not by the hand of man. I was, 

 however, not then aware how abundantly these flakes are found 

 scattered over the surface of the surrounding country; and my 

 present Paper must be considered as a record of further discoveries 

 of what have been called Flint Finds. 



At Croyde, the flakes are found at the base of the soil, which 

 rests upon a bed of Drift, — a so-called "Eaised Beach." They 

 may also be traced on the surface of the ground for half a mile 

 along the hill-side towards Baggy Point, and to a height of 200 

 feet above the sea ; and on the exposed side of the hill, where the 

 soil has been wasted by weathering, a large number of flakes was 

 found on the surface. These exposed flakes were covered with a 

 white coating, the result of atmospheric action ; but the shattered 

 flints dug from under the soil, have their colour as fresh and their 

 fracture and edges as sharp as if recently broken. 



About a mile inland, at Putsburrow, precisely similar split 

 flints and well formed flakes were found on the surface of the soil. 



Along the shore line, I traced them from Morte Point on the 

 north, to Northam on the south, a distance of full ten miles. 



On the outside of Northam Pebble-ridge there is a Submarine 

 Forest, which is exposed at low-water. The bed of decayed trees 

 and roots rests on a stratum of blue clay; and shattered flints, 



