612 HUMAN JAW AND FLINT-IMPLEMENTS 



of the component flints of the beds in which it occurs. How- 

 then, it may be asked, could these haches, jointly exposing 

 several square feet of surface, have remained for a length of 

 time under such conditions and escaped staining or dendritic 

 incrustations? If it were assumed from their sharp edges 

 and freedom from rolling that they had been manufactured 

 in the neighbourhood, how was the entire absence of corres- 

 ponding flakes to be accounted for ? G-enuine haches, accord- 

 ing to Mr. Evans, have been comparatively rare at Moulin- 

 Quignon, where they have been found for upwards of twenty 

 years. Not one of this description, universally so admitted, 

 from the ' black seam,' was laid before the Conference, while 

 haches of the suspected character have turned up in extra- 

 ordinary abundance, all of a sudden, within a late period. It 

 was stated at the Conference that more had been yielded at 

 Moulin-Quignon within the last few months than of the 

 genuine kind during several previous years. Nor were they 

 confined to Moulin-Quignon. Specimens were submitted, 

 professing to have been yielded by the gravel -pits of Mautort 

 and Saint Gilles, and exhibiting the rudest attempt at fabri- 

 cation, but disguised by a coating of black matrix smeared 

 over them. One of these, from Mautort, according to a 

 manuscript note of Dr. Carpenter, was ' given up as facti- 

 tious ; ' and on another from St. Gilles, Mr. Busk pointed 

 out that the matrix contained ' unquestionable fragments of 

 recent vegetable structure.' One ingredient of fraud in the 

 case of the haches, clearly made out, was sufficient to cast 

 doubts on the rest of the series, which of themselves were 

 intrinsically suspected upon other grounds. The French 

 members, according to M. Milne-Edwards, held by one of 

 the haches, found by M. de Quatrefages in the ' couche noire.' 

 But its genuine character was not accepted on this intrinsic 

 evidence by the English members, during the three sittings 

 of the Conference at Paris. And, even if admitted to be 

 genuine, it would have gone for little as evidence in the main 

 case ; for, on the hypothesis that the great majority of the 

 questionable specimens had been artificially placed before- 

 hand by the pitmen in the situations where they were found, 

 it might have been expected that some genuine specimens 

 would have been introduced to give countenance to the others. 

 Further, it is well known that in all countries where coins, 

 antiquities, or archaeological objects are in demand, counter- 

 feits are offered abundantly in the market. That Abbeville 

 should have formed an exception to the general law was, in 

 the abstract, more than could have been expected. But it 

 was notorious that an active fabrication of counterfeit flint- 

 implements was carried on both at Amiens and Abbeville, 



