APPENDIX. 371 



flakes of artificial origin, and one has been figured, probably 

 selected for its excellence.* It is by no means convincing to 

 me, and I am not at all surprised that so many archaeologists 

 question the artificial character of these objects, which ex- 

 hibit a great variety of forms. Upon this point Eames does 

 not profess to be qualified to pronounce judgment, limiting 

 himself solely to the geological questions. He argues, how- 

 ever, that the fact that all the objects supposed to be arti- 

 ficial are made of the best qualities of flint, of which imple- 

 ments are ordinarily made, although fragments of inferior 

 quality are abundant in the same formation, implies the in- 

 tervention of man's judgment in making the selection. But 

 M. Boule shows that this is merely the result of the erosion 

 of an ancient river, which operated only upon the upper 

 beds, in which alone the better qualities of flint are to be 

 found ; and Rames has accepted this explanation. f The 

 flints of Puy-Courny seem to fall within the same category 

 as those of Thenay. They are the product of denudation, 

 have travelled long distances, and have been subjected to 

 the action of powerful agents. These causes are sufficient 

 to account for the shocks of which they show the traces, and 

 to explain the production of splinters arising therefrom. 



The last locality in which flints claimed to have been 

 manufactured by the Tertiary man are supposed to have 

 been discovered is the so-called desert of Otta, in the valley 

 of the Tagus, not far from Lisbon. 



The formation there is a lacustrine deposit of great 

 thickness, belonging to the upper Miocene, and abounding 

 in flint. Here, during the course of twenty years, M. Ri- 

 beiro discovered, but mostly upon the surface, a large num- 

 ber of flakes of flint and quartzite. After much debate in 

 regard to them, ninety-five of them were finally sent by 

 him to Paris, in 1878, and placed in the archaeological de- 

 partment of the great exposition. There they were to be 

 submitted to the judgment of the assembled prehistoric 

 archaeologists of all nationalities, many of whom, including 

 the writer, availed themselves of the opportunity of carefully 



* Materiaux, tome xviii, p. 400. 



f Revue d'Anthropologie (third series), tome iv, p. 217. 



