January 25, 1907] 



SCIENCE 



127 



river drift of the neighborhood for years, 

 .extended his field of search in 1885 to in- 

 clude the summit of that portion of the 

 chalk plateau which lies between the valley 

 of the Darent on the west and that of the 

 Medway on the east. Here at heights of 

 from four hundred to seven hundred feet 

 above the sea, he discovered flints supposed 

 to have been chipped by the hand of man. 



As Harrison 's collection grew it was sub- 

 mitted to Sir Joseph Prestwich, whose 

 country-seat was at Shoreham in the 

 Darent Valley near by. Thirty years 

 earlier Prestwich had confirmed the accu- 

 racy of Boucher de Perthes 's discoveries in 

 the valley of the Somme. Who could be 

 better fitted than he to answer the ques- 

 tions as to the age of the specimens and of 

 the southern drift in which they occur, as 

 well as to the character of the chipping. 

 According to Prestwich the rudely chipped 

 flints are artifacts and are as old as the 

 southern drift. They are both older than 

 the northern drift or boulder clay, and 

 hence preglacial. Rutot places them in 

 the Middle Pliocene. The southern drift 

 (with implements) was transported across 

 the chalk escarpment and the chalk plain 

 into the Thames Valley along lines inde- 

 pendent of the present drainage; the 

 patches that are now left on the highest 

 points (eight hundred and sixty-four feet 

 at Titsey hill west of the Darent Valley), 

 marking what were then the valleys. 



Mr. J. Allen Brown," in discussing the 

 specimens found on the North Downs by 

 Harrison, was the first to propose the term 

 'eolithic,' now so much in evidence. Two 

 years later, G. de Mortillet made use of 

 the term in his 'Classification palethno- 

 logique,'® applying it to the Tertiary only. 

 Dr. Rutof does not limit the eolithic 



' Jour. Anthr. Inst., March 8, 1892, XII., 93-94. 

 ' Bull. Soc. ielge de giol., de paleon. et d'hydrol., 

 Bruxelleg, 1903, XVII., 425. 



' Bull. Soc. d' Anthr. de Pa/ris, 1894, p. 616. 



period to the Tertiary. In his classifica- 

 tion, as previously stated, the early phases 

 of the Quaternary are also eolithic, the 

 well-known hache type (Chellean) not ap- 

 pearing until the second advance of the ice. 



Eoliths are by no means confined to 

 Kent. They have been found by Shrub- 

 sole in Berkshire; by Blackmore, BuUen 

 and others near Salisbury, Wilts; at Dew- 

 lish in Dorset ; also in Surrey, Hampshire, 

 the southern part of Essex and Norfolk. 

 Mr. Percival A. B. Martin has found 

 eoliths at a number of places on the South 

 Downs in the neighborhood of Eastbourne 

 and Beachy Head. 



Are eoliths artifacts? This is the fate- 

 ful question. Their geological age is of no 

 consequence if they are only natural forms 

 and have never been used by man or his 

 precursor. The first flakes to be utilized 

 were in all probability natural forms. It 

 is not likely that eolithic man knew how to 

 obtain the raw material from the chalk. 

 He depended on picking up from the drift 

 flakes of approximately the shape and size 

 needed. A sharp edge was utilized once, 

 twice, or until it became dulled, and was 

 then cast aside. If an angular piece did 

 not admit of being comfortably grasped in 

 the hand, the troublesome corners were re- 

 moved. Such conclusions as these are 

 forced upon one after careful examination 

 of a series of the specimens in question. 

 Would the same conclusions be so irresist- 

 ible if these objects were merely nature's 

 playthings? Many may even be grouped 

 according to more or less deflnite patterns. 

 Two of these deserve special mention, viz., 

 the small crescent-shaped scrapers com- 

 parable to the spoke-shave, and the double 

 scrapers with an intervening point between 

 the two scraping edges. Sometimes two 

 margins are worked, but on opposite sides. 

 That is to say, after chipping one of the 

 margins, instead of rotating the specimen 



