1803.] FRESTWICH MOULIN QUIGNON. 497 



June 3, 1863. 



The Eev. Eichard Wilson Greaves, M.A., Eector of Tooting, was 

 elected a Fellow. 



The following communication was read : — 



On the Section at Moulin Quignon, Abbeville, and on the peculiar 

 Character of some of the Flint Implements recently discovered 

 there. By Joseph Prestwich, F.E.S., Treas. G.S. 



A short notice of the age and character of these beds was given by 

 me in a paper read before the Eoyal Society in May 1859, and I 

 should not have recurred to this small section had not the recent an- 

 nouncement of the discovery of a Human Jaw and of Flint Implements 

 of a peculiar type, by M. Boucher de Perthes, attracted particular 

 attention to these beds, and led to questions being raised respecting 

 both the age of the beds and the genuineness of the remains. 



The general grounds on which the antiquity of the Human remains 

 have been questioned are : — 1st, the exceptional condition of the Hu- 

 man Jaw ; and 2nd, the peculiar character and fresh-looking aspect 

 of the Flint Implements. On the first point I do not wish to make 

 any observations, as the question will be discussed by Dr. Falconer. 

 Nor will I dwell long on the second point, with regard to which I 

 have taken a more active part. Up to the beginning of this year 

 Flint Implements had been rarely found at Moulin Quignon. I had 

 visited the pit at least seven or eight times, sometimes alone, at other 

 times in company with my friend Mr. Evans and others, but we had 

 never succeeded in finding a Flint Implement, nor even in obtaining 

 a specimen from the workmen. I have two specimens given me by 

 M. de Perthes, and Mr. Evans has one given him by M. Marcotte. 

 These, and all those which I had seen in the collection of M. de 

 Perthes, were invariably stained of a dark yellow or brown colour, 

 were generally worn, and had the usual lustre of old specimens. Not 

 only do they possess these characters of Quaternary Flint Implements, 

 but they possess them in a degree more marked than do those from 

 any other spot. Nowhere are they so much coloured, and nowhere 

 so much worn. A number of them are also ruder than any I have 

 seen anywhere else. "When, therefore, on the 13th of April last, Mr. 

 Evans and I saw the collection of Flint Implements which M. Boucher 

 de Perthes had obtained from the bed containing the Human Jaw, their 

 characters struck us as being so exceptional as to raise serious doubts 

 as to their authenticity. Before, however, pronouncing an opinion, we 

 went to Moulin Quignon to examine further the section. Unfortu- 

 nately there had been a fall of the gravel, and the face of the section 

 was almost entirely obscured, so that it was impossible for us to 

 obtain the evidence we required. "We went, therefore, to the pit at 

 St. Gilles, and on our way, the workman who accompanied us took 

 two Flint Implements from his pocket and handed them to me, saying 

 he had found them at Moulin Quignon. These specimens were rude, 

 badly shaped, and apparently smeared over with a ferruginous 

 clayey sand. Upon washing one of these at the first cottage we came 



