548 ON THE DISCOTERY OF PALiEOLITHIC IMPLEMENTS AT CRAYFORD. 



the upper layers of brick-earth, and giving much of the present form 

 and slope to the lower part of the valley. At its close came down 

 rushes of gravel, chiefly from the highest bed, crushing into the 

 softer layer beneath, and making festoons and loops when seen in 

 section ; this is known by the name of " trail," and accumulated 

 lower down in large banks, on which rests the alluvium of the pre- 

 historic time. 



EXPLANATION OF PLATE XXII. 



Flint flakes found at Crayford, replaced in their relative positions around the 

 hache, which lies within, forming a restoration of the block of flint as picked up 

 on the neighbouring foreshore before being worked. Many of the constituent 

 flakes hare been used. (The flake marked " J. L." was found by Sir John 

 Lubbock after the other fragments had been pieced together.) 



Discussion. 



Prof. Prestwich observed that this case was analogous to those 

 of the Somme valley, where we had an upper- and a lower-level 

 gravel with flint implements. He remarked on the great interest 

 and novelty of the work of Mr. Spurrell. 



Mr. Evans thought the discovery threw much light upon the 

 relations of the beds and the manufacture of the flints. He called 

 attention to the difference between the flakes from the brick-earths 

 and the implements from the upper gravel. Many of the flint flakes 

 were carefully wrought, and seemed to have been intended for flint 

 knives. The Crayford deposit resembles that of Menchecourt, in 

 which similar flakes and bones of R. tichorhinus had been found. 



Prof. BoNNEY called attention to the fact that the incrustations 

 and colour-stains passed over the cracks in the cases where the frag- 

 ments had been fitted together to make a block. This perplexed 

 him, and he could not help doubting whether the latter were uot 

 fractures caused by natural action, and not by the hand of palaeo- 

 lithic man. 



Prof. Hughes saw difficulties in the way of accepting the evidence 

 without further explanations. The flakes were left together, while 

 the gravel and sand told of transporting currents. Moreover the 

 flakes were not in the same condition as the other remains said to 

 have been procured from the same formation ; while the flints from 

 which the flakes were struck did seem to have belonged, when 

 whole, to that formation*. 



Mr. Charlesworth mentioned a deposit at Hackney where im- 

 plements were being found with Cyrena fiuminalis. 



Mr. Spurrell replied that some stains had commenced before the 

 specimen was worked, while others were formed afterwards. 



* [Note. — I am permitted to state in a note that since offering the above 

 criticism on the evidence laid before the Society, I have examined the locality 

 with Mr. Spurrell and have seen that the difficulties which occurred to me can 

 be explained away by reference to the peculiar conditions of deposit at the foot 

 of a chalk cliff, and that, having dug out many specimens with my own hands, I 

 am convinced that the flakes are the work of man and that they do occur under 

 at least 37 feet of the Crayford sand and gravel with the remains of Rhinoceros 

 &c.— T. M'K. H.j 



