Dec. 28, 1888.] 



SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 



659 



fashioned into delicate instruments. Then they found 

 great blocks of stone, generally with a depression in 

 them, on which these masses were rested while the 

 blows were being struck which separated the flakes ; 

 and in one case a very ingenious worker, Mr. Spurrell, 

 had contrived by picking up pieces of flakes at a certain 

 spot and fitting them together to reconstruct a rough 

 chalk flint out of which a spear-head had been made. 

 In the centre was a cavity, evidently the place 

 where the tool was originally, the flakes which were 

 lying about on the floor were actually the flakes 

 which were struck off in making the implement. The 

 implement, of course, had not been found, but enough 

 of the flakes had been found to show the general character 

 of the rough flint out of which the implement was 

 originally made. 



Now, the study of these flint instruments had led 

 thsm into very interesting results with respect to the 

 history of the human race. It was certain that the 

 age of man in Britain and in other countries went 

 back very far indeed beyond the period covered by 

 history, or even by tradition. Flint implements which 

 had undoubtedly been made by man had been found in 

 situations and with surroundings which left no possible 

 doubt that they were of enormousantiquity,an antiquity ot 

 many many, thousands of years, though they could not give 

 their actual date in years. These implements were found 

 sometimes in the gravel of rivers, like the gravel of the 

 Thames Valley, not only the gravel in the present river, 

 but at a greater elevation than the present river — 50 

 and 60 and 70 feet above — where the river formerly 

 worked before it cut down its bed to the present level. 

 They found such instruments in the old caves which 

 were sometimes inhabited by these men, and they also 

 found the remains of animals which had either been 

 washed in or had been carried in by men who had killed 

 them for their prey, and with some of those skeletons 

 of animals not living now in this country were 

 found these remarkable flint instruments, the whole 

 being covered up by a layer of stalagmite, and it 

 was possible for an investigator to break open these 

 stalagmites, and find concealed below, the bones of these 

 animals, mingled with weapons of men who lived at the 

 period when the caves were inhabited. Besides these 

 proofs they had raised beaches — that was sea beds, 

 which by the movements cf the land were now far above 

 the sea level — they found in those remarkable refuse 

 heaps, or kitchen middens, as they were sometimes 

 called, or shell mounds, many of the relics, and tools, 

 and weapons made of stone employed by these ancient 

 people who lived almost entirely upon shell-fish, with 

 such game as they were able to kill with their rude 

 weapons. Now in the remarkable lake dwellings of 

 western and other countries, of which they had examples 

 in Central Africa and New Guinea, at the present day, in 

 peat mosses and other situations, there were many 

 deposits containing these remarkable flint instruments. 



And now he must point out to them what were proofs 

 of the antiquity of these objects. The projfs of antiquity 

 were of two kinds. First uf all it was clear thatin many 

 cases great physical changes had taken place since these 

 objects were deposited in the situations where they now 

 found them. In many cases, as he had already pointed 

 out, the rivers which had flowed at these spots, had worn 

 down their beds 20, 30, 40, 50, and 60 feet below the 

 level at which they must have flowed when these instru- 

 ments were deposited in the midst of the gravel. In other 



cases, as, for example, the flint instruments which had 

 been found along the shores of the Solent and in the Isle of 

 Wight, they had evidence that when these men lived, 

 and used implements of that kind, the Isle of Wight 

 was joined to the mainland, and then all the wearing 

 away which first took place by the river which ran there, 

 and then by the sea which effected the separation of the 

 Isle of Wight from the mainland, all this action had 

 gone on since those implements were lost in the bed of 

 that ancient river. Moreover they had clear proof that 

 the climate had changed, he would not say for the better, 

 but it was somewhat warmer now than when these men 

 lived there. The second proof of the antiquity of these 

 objects was found in the fact that they were associated in 

 such a way with the remains of various animals, some of 

 which were actually extinct, and had died out altogether 

 in the world, and others no longer existed in this 

 country, but in distant countries, such as the hairy 

 mammoth, which does not live at the present day. 

 These, with reindeer and many other animals with 

 curious shells, which were found in the rivers at that 

 period, though not living in this country now, and 

 various forms of vegetation — all these associations 

 indicated that man was living contemporaneously with 

 these curious forms of life. That the antiquity of these 

 objects was very great could not be for one moment 

 doubted, though it was quite impossible to assign the age 

 of each object in years. It must be measured by many, 

 many thousands of years. 



Let him just recall to their recollection some of 

 the results of these interesting studies, carried on 

 concerning these wonderful flint instruments. He 

 would not waste time by insisting upon the fact 

 that these objects were really of artificial origin. He 

 might as well try to argue that his watch got into 

 his pocket by chance, and that it was not made 

 by a watchmaker, as that these beautiful objects were not 

 made by men with a definite object. The study of these 

 interesting objects showed that there was a regular suc- 

 cession amongst them ; that many of the oldest objects 

 contained proofs of antiquity which were most striking. 

 Thus associated with the remains of animals of a 

 kind which were quite extinct, they had very rude 

 and primitive types, and as they came down to more 

 recent times — in which the evidences of the change of 

 climate, in the inhabitants of England, the wild beasts 

 living in England, and they approached nearer to. our 

 own time, they found other types employed. The 

 oldest and simplest types were those which were classed 

 as older palaeolithic, and these older palaeolithic were 

 the types which were employed by men who lived 

 here in very remote times. In that variety the imple- 

 ments had generally long spear-headed and rounded 

 forms, and simple flakes, which were employed for 

 various purposes, also occurred. Of the men who 

 fashioned these instruments they knew very little. The 

 instruments were so simple in kind, and were so seldom 

 found associated with other objects which would throw 

 light upon the nature|of the avocations of the usersofthese 

 instruments, that all they could infer was that they were 

 hunters and fishers ; probably, by their superior numbers 

 and cunning, they waged successful warfare with some 

 strange animals that lived in the country, including the 

 curious woolly elephant, the hippopotamus, the lion, the 

 bear, and other animals. That they fished in the river was 

 exceedingly probable, and it was also certain that the 

 climate wat> colder, and what would perhaps strike them 



