300 IMtLEiyiENTS FROM THE PLATEAU-GRAVELS. [Aug. 189S, 



and industry, man's age in Kent had been carried back one stage 

 farther. In the congratulations to Mr. Harrison on that achieve- 

 ment, no one would join more heartily than the Author. But that 

 admission did not affect the question of the specimens described as 

 'Eoliths ' or ' rudes.' Those who believed in these specimens still 

 could not agree as to which are genuine and which not. Prof. Rupert 

 Jones had that evening doubted one which Mr. Harrison selected as 

 a fine example. The thickness of the edges to which Prof. Jones 

 had called attention increased the speaker's scepticism as to their 

 authenticity. In replj^ to Mr. Salter, he had no doubt that the 

 Author would admit the gravels as Pliocene if Elephas meridionalis 

 were ever found in them ; but there was no evidence at present to 

 refer the gravels to the Pliocene age. The undoubted implements 

 exhibited did not show well-preserved glacial striae; but after 

 examination of the series, the speaker thought that some of the 

 scratches were truly glacial. In reply to Mr. Kennard, he said 

 that the case did not rest on one specimen alone, though special 

 attention had been called to one ; and the number of specimens 

 obtained by Mr. Harrison between 1892 and 1894 was quoted 

 from Sir Joseph Prestwich. The question of the natural agencies 

 was not at issue that evening, and so the specimens to which 

 Mr. Kennard had referred were not exhibited. The critical points 

 of the present paper had been ignored in the discussion : no 

 attempt had been made to show that the implements were not 

 PalsBolithic, or that the ' Eolithic ' work was not later than the 

 Palaeolithic work. He quoted the opinions of Mr. Montgomery 

 Bell and Mr. Harrison to show the identity of the working of 

 the broken edge of the Palaeolith with that of the Eoliths. It 

 was only the ' Eolithic ' implements that the Author had denied. 

 The wide general importance of this question was the claim that the 

 Kent plateau had been the home of a primitive pre-Palaeolithic 

 people, which, he held, the Author's arguments conclusively dis- 

 proved. 



