272 FOOTPRINTS OF VANISHED RACES IN CORNWALL. 



ous fragments of flint wliicli are scattered over the surface, or 

 buried in the subsoil of our county, for their age is doubtful, and 

 their origin is uncertain. Still, the questions raised by these 

 shattered flints are interesting and imjjortant. Carew, writing 

 300 years ago,^^ does not mention flints in Cornwall. Dr. Borlase, 

 in 1758, refers to the opinion that no flint existed in Cornwall,^'^ and 

 declares that this is incorrect, and he further states that flints 

 were found on Marazion beach, and inland at a place near Ludg- 

 van.^^ These Ludgvan flints, he says, were found at a depth of 

 three feet beneath the surface, and ranged in size from a 

 bean to a man's fist. De Luc mentions no flints, though he 

 describes at length the flints on the Ilaldons in Devon, and on 

 the Blackdown Hills in Somerset. ^^ Dr. Boase, also, who 

 travelled more than 1,200 miles on foot over Cornwall in order to 

 elucidate its geology, never mentions any flints, although he 

 particularly describes the surface deposits. ^^ Sir Henry De la 

 Beche refers to the flints in the Cornish Raised Beaches,^** and is 

 somewhat at a loss to explain their origin. Since his day, the 

 flints of Cornwall have attracted much attention, because of their 

 being closely connected with the question of the antiquity of man. 

 Makes and fragments of flint have been found in great numbers 

 all over Cornwall, both on the coast-line and far inland. They 

 occur on our cliffs, in our cultivated districts, and on our moor- 

 lands. They are scattered over the surfaces of our commons, and 

 often have to be cleared away — like the quartz blocks — when the 

 land is reclaimed. They lie on the surface of the ground, but 

 are often also buried at a foot or more in the subsoil. 



Sir John Maclean tells us that in the parish of St. Minver 

 the flints are buried so deep in the subsoil, that they are beyond 

 the reach of the plough. ^^ The country people in Cornwall often 

 call them " strike-a-lights," or say that they are gun-flints only. 



25. Survey of Cornwall, 1602. 



26. Natural History of Cornwall, p. 281. 



27. Ibid. p. 106. 



28. Geological Travels, vol. iii, pp. 20, 21, 398. It is curious that De I^uc visited 

 Stepper Point at Padstow, where flints are so abundant, and yet does not mention 

 that he saw any flints there. All he seems to have wished to do was to upset the 

 Huttonian Theory. 



29. Transactions of the Royal Cornwall Geological Society ,^o\. iv, p. 166—475. 



30. Report on the Geology of Cornwall, Devon, and West Somerset, p. 429. 



31. History of Trigg Minor, vol. iii, p. 4. 



