554 [P'oc. B.N.F.C., 



These gravels occur along the sides of the valleys through which 

 the originating rivers flowed, such as the Seine and the Somme 

 in France, and the Thames and the Ouse in England, and they 

 appear to have been deposited when the respective rivers flowed 

 at a much higher level than they do at present. The worked 

 flints from the drift include oval or almond-shaped implements, 

 varying into the shoe-, the pear-, and the heart-shaped, pointed 

 weapons, the ends being formed of the undressed flint.* Flint 

 flakes occur, but by no means commonly, — the scraper, also, 

 which is still rarer. 



With such flints are frequently found the remains of the great 

 Mammalia of the Quaternary period ; there are no osseous 

 remains of any animal so small as man. The remains found 

 are chiefly the mammoth, woolly rhinoceros, rein-deer, and 

 musk ox, indicating climatic conditions partaking more of an 

 arctic character, and altogether different from what prevailed 

 during Pre-historic and modern times. t It is probable, also, that 

 at that time Great Britain was united with the Continent, and 

 that glaciers were the active agents in moulding the surface of 

 the land. 



Other sources from which the rudely-worked flints of the 

 Palaeolithic type are obtained, are the ossiferous caverns of Great 

 Britain and the Continent ; many of them have been systema- 

 tically explored in France, Germany, Belgium, Italy, Poland, 

 and England, and they have yielded a much more varied 

 assortment of worked flints than are found in the drift gravels, 

 indicating an advance in culture.! 



Caverns occur in all parts of the world, and in all limestone 

 districts, no matter what the geological formation may be. We 

 have in County Antrim some very interesting examples still 

 used by our fishermen as shelters for boats, nets, fish, &c, as for 

 example at Ballintoy. Caverns are formed by marine denudation 



* " Ancient Stone Implements of Great Britain," by John Evans, F.S.A. 



■f- See Sir John Lubbock's "Pre-historic Times"; Geikie's "Ice Age"; Croll's 



" Climate and Time." 

 J See Pengelly's Report of the Exploration of Knits Cave. 



