286 PHYSIOGRAPHY. [chap. 



the brick-earths of Crayford and Erith have yielded a worked 

 flint or two ; though no implements of the type noticed 

 above. So many of these flints have been found in the old 

 gravels, not only in the Thames Valley but in various other 

 parts of England, and also in the valleys of northern 

 France, that there is no reason to doubt the existence of 

 man, in this part of the world, during the period at which 

 the older river-drifts were deposited. Moreover, some of 

 these implements have been found in such close associa- 

 tion with the bones of extinct animals, that there is equally 

 little doubt as to the co-existence of man with the old fauna 

 of this period. It is probable, indeed, that the early flint- 

 using man came hither from the continent with some of the 

 extinct mammalia ; at a time when Britain was connected 

 with the European mainland by an isthmus occupying the 

 position of what is now the Straits of Dover. 



Flint implements, such as that represented in Fig. 85, 

 are the oldest known relics of man. They indicate a time, 

 before the commencement of history in Western Europe, 

 when man was ignorant of the use of metal, and fashioned 

 his weapons and implements out of stone. The more 

 ancient of these prehistoric implements, such as that in 

 Fig. 85, are simply chipped mto shape; but other stone 

 implements occur, which are neatly ground, and even 

 polished. Fig. 86 represents a stone celt^ which was 

 dredged up from the Thames, at London, and is now in 

 Mr. Evans's collection.- These more highly finished stone 

 implements are never found in the old high-level gravels, 



^ Celts, from Lat. celtis, a chisel ; not, as often supposed, because 

 tliey were used by the people called Celts. 



* Figs. 85 and 86 are reduced from figures in The Ancient Stove 

 Implements, Weapons, and Ornaments of Great Britain. By John 

 Evans, F.R.S., &c. 1S72. 



