Vol. 54.] IMPLEMENTS FROM THE PLATEATJ-GRAVELS. 295 



' Eolithic ' man, which is the general question that has given these 

 flints such wide interest. 



The most instructive of these plateau-specimens is No. 784 (fig. 3), 

 a broken implement of the oval type. To understand its significance 

 let us examine in detail the evidence which it affords. It has passed 

 through seven stages : — 



(1) It was wrought by man into an oval Palaeolithic implement. 



(2) It was greatly abraded, worn possibly by the action of blown 



sand. 



(3) It was broken, the upper left-hand quarter being removed, 



leaving a smooth concave fracture, part of which is seea at/. 

 The cause of the fracture is immaterial, but it was probably 

 due to the action of frost : this forces from flints flakes 

 which leave deep hollows, or broad concave surfaces rippled 

 by conchoidal fracture. To such frost-flaking I attribute 

 the fractured surface /. 



(4) This fracture cut obliquely through the implement, leaving a 



thin edge along d, which has since been chipped back to its 

 present position. The chips were all marginal, and nearly 

 vertical to the plane of the specimen. The chipping appears 

 to me of exactly the same character as that on specimens 

 given me by Mr. Harrison as typical ' Eoliths.' 



(5) The specimen was stained with the deep brown hue charac- 



teristic of the plateau-flints. This staining was probably 

 due to the action of ferruginous solutions, depositing ferric 

 oxide in the interstices left by removal from the flint of the 

 more soluble silica.^ 



(6) The implement was marked by a series of glacial striae. 



(7) A thin layer of white silica was deposited over the surface, 



filling up the glacial striae. 



The present condition of this very instructive Palaeolith may be 

 explained in one of two ways. Either it has been broken and then 

 chipped by natural agencies, in which case the plateau-' Eoliths ' 

 were also chipped by natural agencies (agencies which I consider to 

 have been the movements in beds of frozen or thawing gravel) ; or 

 if this explanation be rejected, and the marginal chipping be held to 

 be the work of man, then that work must have been done by post- 

 Palaeolithic man. In either case we may conclude that the use of 

 the term ' Eolith ' should be suspended till proofs of the existence 

 of a pre-Palaeolithic race are established. 



Some specimens lately found by Mr. Harrison at Maplescombe 

 (Kent) are by his request now exhibited to the Society. Though 

 not immediately bearing upon the subject under consideration, they 

 are of much interest as examples of the continuity of Palaeolithic 



^ See T. G-. Bonney, ' The Formation of Flints,' Phonogr. Quart. Eev, vol. i 

 (1894) pp. 37-41, 



