A. F. Griffith — Find of a Flint Implement in Gravel. 401 



character, consisting of a bone supposed to have been cut by man 

 before its burial in the gravel. This was described by Prof. H. G. 

 Seely, in his paper on the Fen Drifts.^ 



A few worked flints have been found round Cambridge, in gravel 

 heaps by the road-side. Some specimens, now in the Woodwardian 

 Museum, were found by Prof. Hughes, in gravel which came from 

 the Observatory Hill. Mr. Fisher also has a small hache of much the 

 same type as the Barnwell one, but much smaller, and more oval, 

 being only 3^ inches long ; this he found in gravel which came from 

 the Chesterton pits. Both this and the Observatory specimens are 

 much more water- worn than that from Barnwell. The implements 

 found at both these localities are of the regular "Eiver-drift period " 

 type, closely resembling several of the woodcuts in Dr. John Evans's 

 " Ancient Stone Implements of Great Britain," e.g.. Implement from 

 Santon Downham, fig. 436, p. 504; from Shrub Hill, Feltwell, 

 fig. 448, p. 515; from Hoxne, Suffolk, fig. 449, p. 519; from 

 Fordingbridge, Ashford, on the Wiltshire Avon, fig. 473, p. 555 ; 

 also one from Wookey Hyaena-den, fig, 413, p. 473. I have also a 

 well-marked chip, found in gravel in a little pit close to the railway 

 on the south side, about one mile from Lord's Bridge Station, in the 

 direction of Old North Eoad. 



The section of the pit at the corner where my specimen was 

 found is roughly as follows : — 



i. Surface soil 3 feet. 



ii. Trail 1 to 2 feet. 



iii. Irregular gravel, with band of sand 3 to 2 feet. 



iv. Level-bedded gravel with marly bands 9 feet. 



The implement was found near the top of the bed iv. The band 

 with shells occurred near its base. 



With regard to the authenticity of the sjiecimen, I may say that 

 when I got it, it had been partially cleaned, but all the corners were 

 still full of the peculiar fine white gravel of the bed. I only gave 

 one shilling for it, which goes to prove that the men found it on the 

 spot, and did not buy it in the town to sell it at a high profit in the pit. 



A remarkable character of the weapon is, that while on one side 

 and at the blunt end it is of the yellowish colour so common in 

 Paleeolithic flints from gravel, its other side is much whitened, pro- 

 bably by the action of the infiltrated water which is highly charged 

 with lime. At the suggestion of Prof. T. G. Bonney, I tried to find 

 similar specimens among the rough unworked flints in the pit. In 

 this I was only partially successful, as I could find none with the 

 difference of colour on the two sides so marked; but this was, I 

 believe, due to the fact that there are very few flints of any con- 

 siderable size in the lower part of the deposit. 



In the subjoined woodcut (p. 402) is given a section from the 

 Observatory gravel-pit to that at Barnwell. The heights given are 

 measured from the level of the river Cam below the Jesus College 

 locks ; the section cuts the river just above them ; the direction of the 

 section runs 11|^° S. of West and N. of East. The base of the gravel 

 1 Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc, vol. xxii. p. 477- 



DECADE II. VOL. V.— NO. IX. 26 



