138 Corre»pondence — J. T. Bantoit. 



tliat the ice plucked them from outcrops in the bed of a former North 

 Sea ; also that these outcrops show the continuity of the North 

 Yorkshire Basin with that of North- Western Germany. The list 

 appended to the paper supports this statement, for it shows that many 

 gaps are now filled, which are obvious when Hyatt's lists for the two 

 regions are compared. 



The Middle and the "Upper Lias afPord much material, but the types 

 are closer to those of North Yorkshire. The Oolites are very scantily 

 represented, although the Lower Cretaceous is abundantly represented 

 both by Ammonites and by Belemnites. Again, there is a great 

 difference between the state of preservation of a collection made from 

 the Drift and that of one which can be made now from the Speeton 

 Clay in situ. Hence, the existence of a wide spread of these clays to 

 the east is confirmed. 



The Chalk Belemnites belong to a zone higher than any known in 

 Yorkshire ; therefore they probabl}' came from the sea-bed. 



coi?,i?,ES^'OisriDE3srcE:. 



FOSSIL BEADS (?) FROM THE GRAVEL OF BEDFORDSHIRE. ARE 

 THEY EVIDENCE OF HUMAN WORKMANSHIP? 

 SiE, — As I was searching in a gravel-pit some few weeks ago one 

 of the workmen brought me some very curious beads, which I enclose to 

 you. They lay in various positions in the gravel, and were not all in one 

 place, but scattered about in different parts of the pit, and they varied 

 in size from that of a large marble to that of a pea. The supposition 

 is that they are sponges, but possibly some of them may have been 

 artificially fashioned and drilled for stringing. Advantage may have 

 been taken in the case of the others of a natural perforation formed 

 by the decay of the nucleus round which the sponge was formed, and 

 the hole enlarged by one of tliose fliut-horers which are often found, 

 to admit of stringing on a sinew or a strip of hide. I am told that 

 Palseolithic implements have been found in this pit, though I was 

 not so fortunate as to find any. May I not pertinently ask, does not 

 the occurrence of these beads point to a higher state of development 

 in Palaeolithic man than is generally conceded ? Indications are not 

 wanting which strongly support this view. Witness the cave-paintings 

 of Altamira in Sj)ain, and the occurrence of highly worked Palseolithic 

 implements in caves of Aurignacian age in France, and lately of 

 similar flints at Duston, Northants. While on this subject may 

 I ask why there should not have been in Palaeolithic times men of 

 difPerent stages of development living in different parts of the world 

 as at the present day ? The tendency has been to class all these 

 ancient races as under the same degree and state of development. It 

 is probably in southern regions where the earliest traces of the 

 higher-developed Palseolithic man are to be found, climatic conditions 

 in the north in those earlj' times being less favourable to their 

 development, if not precluding their existence altogether. I may say 



