352 



T 



'he Flint Tools of North Devon. 



FEET, 







8 



1C 



14, 



iG 



13 



20 



B 



" a circumstance," adds Mr. Evans, " which in no way affects 

 the question of their antiquity." * Taking for our data the 

 two weapons we have first named, found at St. Acheul, at a 

 depth of 10 and 11 feet respectively, and contrasting them 

 with two others found in the very same pit, the one at a depth 

 of 20 feet below the surface, and the other discovered by Mr. 

 Flower lying in situ at a depth of 22 feet,t let us for the 

 sake of simplicity make use of a diagram, and 

 put a to represent the present time, a.d. 1865, 

 b the minimum (10 feet), and c the maximum 

 depth (22 feet), at which weapons have been 

 found. It will then be perfectly clear that if 

 the drift has accumulated at a uniform rate 

 per annum, man must have existed at Amiens 

 during a period so long that the difference in 

 age between b and c is considerably more than 

 equal to the number of years which must have 

 elapsed between b and a ; and can we conceive 

 it possible that during this long, long time any 

 race of man, however savage, could go on 

 generation after generation continually fashion- 

 ing the same old shape of knives, arrow-heads, 

 and hatchets out of flint without the slightest 

 improvement, and leaving us not even a frag- 

 ment of pottery to attest their progress in the 

 arts ? 



In this brief sketch of the records of Prehistoric man, I 

 have purposely left untouched the evidence of the bones of 

 extinct mammals, which in many places are found associated 

 with the implements, because remains of the same species of 

 mammals have been found in caves in juxtaposition with man's 

 bones and articles of man's workmanship — found side by side 

 with flint flakes, combs, pins, armlets, rings of bronze and 

 iron, and coins of the Eoman Emperors from Nero to Con- 

 stantine,"| therefore it must be admitted they cannot serve as 

 infallible data to prove or disprove the antiquity of man and 

 the age of the drift. 



Passing from France to England we find flint implements 

 in the drift at Hoxne in Suffolk ; near Heme Bay, at Bedford, 

 and two or three other places. This article, however, is 

 headed with the name of North Devon, and so to that district 

 and its records of primeval man I must proceed without any 

 further delay. 



Baggy Point, the bold and rugged promontory bounding 

 Barnstaple Bay on the north side, and distant from that town 



* Archceologia, vol. xxviii. p. 302. f Antiquity of Man, p. 103. 



X Geologist, vol. iv. pp. 539 — 295. 



i-C 



