294 



ME. W. CTJNNINGTON ON PALEOLITHIC [Aug. 1 898, 



are generally acknowledged to have been glacially scratched, and 

 then thinly coated with a deposit of white silica. These Paleolithic 

 implements show the same characters : they have the typical brown 

 colour, the usual striae, and the white silica ; in fact they wear the 

 livery of the plateau-gravels, in which they must once have been 

 included. 



Man therefore lived in Kent during or prior to the deposition of 

 these gravels ; and, as the implements are Palgeolithic, the gravels 

 are of Palaeolithic age. It may be urged that, having admitted so 

 much, it would be as well to admit that the chipped plateau-flints 

 were also shaped by man. It may be said that to deny that claim 

 is no longer of any avail, the existence of plateau-man having been 



Pig. 3.~m. 784, from Faheham (Kent). 



The edge-chipping in this case was produced after the implement 

 had been finished by PalaeoHthic man. (8x7 cm.) 



conceded. Put the discovery of the Palaeolithic age of the plateau- 

 gravels, though an important contribution to the geology of Kent, 

 is a smaller matter than the claim that the West Kent plateau was 

 the home of a pre -Palaeolithic people whose implements carry 

 us nearer than any yet known ' to the dim red dawn of man.' 

 ^ The Palaeolithic specimens found by Mr. Harrison prove the 

 authenticity of plateau-man, which is a local question, but it is by 

 evidence that I hold to be absolutely fatal to the authenticity of 



