﻿Vol. 64.] OP PALEOLITHIC IMPLEMENTS. 7 



particularly pleased that the Author did not consider these hill- 

 drifts to have heen formed by river-action. The speaker had 

 examined a clay-drift on the summit of the ridge of Chalk Downs 

 in the Isle of Wight, which likewise could not be explained in this 

 manner. This contained palaeolithic implements, some of which 

 were of a similar type to those shown on the table. This deposit 

 was an unctuous clay with angular flints, and it appeared to have 

 been formed by surface-drifting and rain- wash, rather than by the 

 aeolian action suggested by Mr. Clement Eeid. 



Mr. Ll. Treacher remarked on the similarity in shape of the 

 implements exhibited to some found in the valley-gravels at Farn- 

 ham (Surrey), in association with pointed forms of the ordinary 

 river-drift type. He hesitated, however, to suggest that they were 

 of the same age, as, judging from his experience as a collector, 

 the shape-peculiarity of a palaeolithic implement was characteristic 

 of locality rather than of age. 



Mr. H. Bury ventured to question Mr. C. Reid's deduction that 

 sharpness of edge in palaeoliths was opposed to the theory of river- 

 action ; and he produced an implement from Farnham, found in a 

 pocket of clay in the midst of a bed of gravel of undoubted fluviatile 

 origin. This gravel was not at plateau-level, but quite low down the 

 slope of the Wey Valley, Avhere wind-blown beds were improbable, 

 yet the edges of the implement were as sharp as possible. 



Mr. A. S. Kennaed said that, judged by their facias, the age of the 

 implements was late palaeolithic. They were obviously much later 

 than the implements from the 100-foot terrace of the Thames, and 

 could not be correlated with those from the middle-terrace brick- 

 earths. They greatly resembled the series that had been obtained 

 from the site of rock-shelters at Ightham by Mr. Benjamin Harrison, 

 the only difference being one of size. 



Mr. W. Whitaker said that he was glad to hear so many 

 speakers object to mere height being taken as an index of antiquity ; 

 it was relative height only, in regard to the bottom of a valley, that 

 should be taken. Nevertheless, he had seen height above the sea 

 brought forward as pointing to the great age of eoliths ; but now 

 they knew that well-made palaeoliths occurred at much the same 

 level. He was sometimes in doubt as to whether gravels coloured 

 as of Glacial age were really so : it was often, in doubtful cases, a 

 matter of expediency as to what colour should be given to a gravel 

 on the Survey-Map. In the midst of a district of Glacial Drift 

 it was clearly safer to colour a doubtful gravel as of that age, 

 than to introduce another subdivision. 



One of the chief points of the paper was the suggestion of a 

 lacustrine origin for the brick-earths of the Chalk-plateau. These 

 deposits were difficult to explain, and, although he had known them 

 for nearly 50 years, he had never felt confident as to any view of 

 their origin. It should be remembered that they were sometimes 

 bedded, and even finely so. 



Every one must be pleased to have this evidence of the vitality 

 of the Author and of his zeal for the Society. 



