SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



169 



THE IGHTHAM BONE-FISSURE. 



By W. J. Lewis 



A BOUT six years ago Prof. Prestwich began 

 to call the attention of the scientific world 

 to the magnificent relics of man's handiwork, 

 illustrating a series of stone ages, found within 

 six miles round the charming little Kentish village 

 of Ightham, until then practically unheard-of, by 

 Mr. Benjamin Harrison. 



The relations of some of the lower implementi- 

 ferous beds to those of the Thames and Medway 

 were clearly defined by comparison of the respective 

 altitudes, and the types and conditions of the lower 

 group of weapons were shown to be identical with 

 those of the Thames and other rivers admittedly of 

 pleistocene age. But after correlating the lowest 

 deposits with those containing what were formerly 

 supposed to be the evidences of man's first appear- 

 ance in Britain, he took us another and even yet 

 another step backwards away into the vasty deep of 

 geological time ! And as this last stride was some- 



Abbott, F.G.S. 



thing in the nature of a prodigious jump, geologists 

 naturally asked for supplementary evidence. We 

 know little of flints, and care less, said they. What 

 is the fossil evidence that the oldest of your deposits, 

 instead of the newest, is not the correlative of our 

 Thames beds with its associated mammoth, rhinoce- 

 ros and flint implements ? What is the palasonto- 

 logical evidence of the age of these beds ? Some 

 anthropologists also who had got to cherish their 

 valley implements as man's first essay at handi- 

 work in Britain, for some unaccountable reason 

 appeared to join hands with the palaeontologist. 

 Unfortunately, with the exception of one instance 

 at Shoreham, not a single bone of any sort had 

 been discovered, and so for a time the bone and 

 shell collector appeared to have a strong case. 



While lamenting over these unfortunate circum- 

 stances, and contrasting this biological paucity 

 with the magnificent treasures of the caves, one 



Photo by C. E. Cooke, Sevawaks.] 



[From Journal Roy. Geo!. Soc, May, 1894. 

 Fissures in the Kentish Rag, near Ightham. 



