XV 



that in some instances they were found, in considerable numbers, 

 associated with relics of undoubted human workmanship. It was 

 known too that they were readily formed into serviceable shapes 

 — either by natural causes, or by a few well-directed blows, or by 

 pressure ; and therefore it was not to be wondered at that they 

 were extensively used in aid of human necessities. They had even 

 been found affixed to handles. The facility with which such tools 

 are formed is shown at this day in parts of South America, where 

 flakes of obsidian are split off by pressure and used as knives and 

 razors. Then came the question as to the period in past times 

 when they had been so made and used- and this carried them 

 back to a period of great antiquity, but not necessarily to prse-his- 

 toric ages. — With regard to many of the flints which had been 

 exhibited here, he should say that although there was great diffi- 

 culty in attributing their forms to natural causes, yet he should 

 prefer doing so if they were found in such positions and under 

 such circumstances as made the supposition of human interference 

 extremely improbable. As to certain specimens in this Museum 

 — barbed arrow-heads, for instance — no person could hesitate in 

 attributing their present form to human agency ; but many other 

 specimens of suitable form for tools might have been due to 

 natural causes. There were thus two things to be looked at in 

 the consideration of this matter, — one, the character of the flmts, 

 and the other the situation in which they had been found ; and, 

 at present, he would say we ought to hold ourselves aloof from 

 very definite or positive conclusions. Meanwhile, it was interest- 

 ing to hear, as they had heard from Mr. Enys, what natural 

 causes might be assigned for the production of those apparently 

 artificial forms. Mr. Whitley, however, attributed more to natural 

 causes than himself was disposed to do ; and, certainly, he should 

 say that those flints found-^on Dartmoor presented strong indica- 

 tions of having been tooled by human hands ; but that human 

 handling might have taken place within the time usually assigned 

 to man's existence upon earth. Certainly then- position beneath 

 the peat did not make it necessary to assume the duration of 

 man's existence through such immense series of ages as some per- 

 sons had supposed to be required hi other localities. 



Antiquities op Lanivet. A communication was read, from 

 Mr. N. Hare, jun., Liskeard, the purport of which had been ex- 

 tracted from documents in the Record Office of the Diocese of 

 Exeter; and it included a copy of a bill filed, about 1460-1, by 

 John Gody, rector of Lanivet, against Thomas Harry, a tinner, 

 for various injuries done to him as parson of the Church at 

 Lanivet, and for which he had no remedy at common law. 



