456 The Sixtieth General Meeting. 



After tea a special train leaving Bradford at 6,5 brought the party 

 back to Devizes at 6.35. 



At 8 p.m. an Evening Meeting was held in the Town Hall, when 

 the Eev. H. G. 0. Kendall read a paper on " The Flint Implements 

 of Wiltshire " and exhibited many flints in illustration of it, dwelling 

 especially on the possibility of classifying the Palaeolithic flints 

 according to the ideas of the French archaeologists, and other 

 evidence of age afforded by different degrees of patination. Sir 

 Henry Ho worth, in criticising the paper, felt that a protest should 

 be made against the course on which prehistoric archaeology seemed 

 to be entering under the leadership of Dr. Sturge, Mr. Reginald 

 Smith, and others. Mr. Kendall allowed a million years for the 

 Plateau flints, and 240,000 years for the river drift implements. 

 He did not believe there was the slightest evidence for these apalling 

 periods. He objected, also, to the classification of the age of 

 Palaeolithic flints merely by the difference in their forms. The 

 President, Professor Boyd Dawkins, did not believe that it was 

 possible in dealing with the Palaeolithic implements from the river 

 drifts of Wiltshire, or elsewhere in England, to do more than group 

 them into one great period of human culture. He could not regard 

 colour and patination as evidence of age ; in his view such evidence 

 was of no value at all. As to the glacial deposits, he knew of no 

 trace of such south of a line between Bristol and London. As to 

 beds of gravel at very high levels, such as that at Knowla Farm 

 Pit, it did not follow that such beds must have been laid down at 

 the bottom of valleys. The gravel at Knowle might have been 

 left behind on the slope when the percolation of water had carried 

 away the softer debris to the lower lands. Mr. Kendall replied, 

 defending his reliance on patination as a proof of age, and main- 

 taining that the Knowle flints can be classified according to the 

 French system and that the different classes do represent different 

 ages, in spite of their being often found together. 



SATURDAY, AUGUST 16th. 



This was an extra day's excursion, as the majority of members 

 of both Societies had to leave for home. About fifty members, 



