Vol. 54.] The PLATEATJ^GHlA.ViELS DISCUSSION. 299 



attainments on the side of Mr. Harrison. Judging from the hard 

 iron encrustations on the implements from Shepherd's Barn (500 

 feet above O.D.) and other places on the Chalk-plateau, and the iron- 

 pan near Bat's Corner (700 feet above O.D.), from which undoubted 

 implements were taken (at between 6 and 9 feet from the surface), 

 the speaker considered the implements to be of Pliocene age. Two 

 types of implements exhibited were certainly of human workman- 

 ship — (a) those with a straight edge, which are analogous to 

 currier's ' sleekers,' used in dressing the softer leathers ; as plateau- 

 man dressed in skins, if at all, their use to him is obvious, and 

 thick wooden sleekers of the same type were in use at Shalford 

 tannery in this century ; (6) tools on the 'engineers' bit' 

 or 'centre-bit' principle, for piercing : these go back from 

 the fine small Neolith to the more clumsy plateau-implement. Two 

 of the ' sleekers ' are from pits sunk by Mr. Harrison ; one is from 

 the Glacial gravels of Wells (Norfolk). 



Mr. A. S. Kennard regretted the absence of the Author, and 

 observed that to doubt the primitive character of these plateau- 

 implements, because in one solitary instance somewhat similar 

 work was found on a presumed Palaeolith, seemed to be building on 

 very slender foundations. With regard to the statement that 

 Mr. Harrison had found over two thousand in a short space of 

 time, he pointed out that the bulk of these had been found by 

 the field-labourers on the Chalk-plateau, who had been taught 

 by Mr. Harrison what to collect. He strongly objected to 

 referring the work to so-called natural causes, when no attempt 

 had been made to show what these causes were, and how and when 

 they operated. No response had ever yet been vouchsafed to the oft- 

 repeated challenge to produce from Glacial beds flints similar in 

 shape to those from the plateau. Of the human origin of the work 

 on these rudely-trimmed flints he had no doubt. 



Mr. F. W. Hakmee, referring to the remarks of a previous 

 speaker, desired to protest against any attempt to correlate the 

 Crag-beds of East Anglia with any of the gravels of the South 

 of England by that most unreliable of all tests, similarity of 

 lithological character. Beds of iron-pan may have originated 

 at any period, and in the Pliocene deposits of Norfolk they are 

 by no means confined to any special horizon. 



The President, Mr. W. Y. Ball, and Dr. G. J. Hinde also spoke. 



Dr. Gregory, replying on behalf of the Author, expressed regret 

 at the latter's unavoidable absence, which placed his case at a great 

 disadvantage. The Author's experience of flint-implements was 

 very extensive, as he had been working steadily at the question 

 since 1851. He noticed in the discussion absolute unanimity 

 on one point : no one denied that some of the specimens exhibited 

 were worked by man, and that they were genuine plateau-gravel 

 flints, which must have been flaked before the deposition of the 

 gravels. Every speaker had therefore admitted that man lived in 

 Kent before or during the deposition of part of the plateau-gravels. 

 Thanks, therefore, to Mr. B. Harrison's magnificent perseverance 



