13 6 



HA RD WI CKE ' S SCIEA T CE-GOSSIP. 



and here men resided and made their implements of 

 flint. It is worthy of note that upon the high ground, 

 about thirty feet above the level of this deposit of 

 drift implements, I have found a well-chipped hatchet 

 stained a deep yellow colour, with the fractures 

 remarkably well-defined and clear. This most cer- 

 tainly has never been exposed to the wearing 

 influences which have marked some of the Church 

 Field specimens. 



, Although it is impossible in every instance to say 

 to what uses certain forms of flint implements were 

 put, yet it may be well to give a rough idea of their 

 general character in the following analysis : — 



Description or class. Number. 

 Hatchets and almond-shaped weapons . 20 

 Scrapers and trimmed flakes ... 34 



Flakes 50 



Miscellaneous 20 



Total 124 



It has been pointed out that river-drift implements 

 ■may represent for the most part the out-door instru- 

 ments of palaeolithic man,* whilst his smaller and 

 domestic articles may be represented by the contents 

 of certain flint implement-bearing deposits of caves 

 and rock-shelters. This is very evident when we 

 remember that he usually selected a cave or other 

 natural shelter for his dwelling-place. As far as I 

 am aware, no natural shelter, other than that which 

 might be afforded by vegetation, is to be found in the 

 neighbourhood of Church Field ; yet, as we find 

 sharp-edged flakes and domestic implements such as 

 scrapers, it is very clear that he must have lived 

 somewhere close by. It seems not improbable that 

 there may have been a small growth of hardy conifer- 

 ous or other trees near at hand out of which he may 

 have made some house or hut, rude and clumsy no 

 doubt, yet sufficient for the shelter of himself and his 

 family from the frost and snow of the long palaeolithic 

 winters. When we remember the wonderful way in 

 which the Esquimaux make for themselves houses of 

 snow-blocks, we cannot doubt that palaeolithic man 

 found means of making for himself some kind of 

 shelter even where none naturally existed. 



(To be concluded.) 



A WALK IN EAST SUSSEX. 

 By the Rev. Hilderic Friend, F.L.S. 



IT was a fine morning in August, and the plan had 

 already been formed, to make a botanizing tour 

 right across the eastern portion of this interesting 

 county. The place of departure was the pretty 

 village of Sedlescomb, six miles due north of Hast- 



* Vide Dr. John Evans' "Ancient Stone Implements of 

 ■Great Britain,' p. 427. 



ings, and the destination was Hurstmonceux. An 

 early breakfast over, the walk was commenced about 

 nine o'clock, the impedimenta being a schoolboy's 

 bag, with an old volume in it to receive specimens of 

 plants, and a tin box containing sundry bottles, pill 

 boxes, and other requisites for any captures or geo- 

 logical specimens that might fall to one's lot. The 

 lanes as far as Whatlington (or Wartlington) were 

 beautified with sundry composites, umbels, and other 

 plants, including the hemp agrimony, knapweeds, 

 scabious and golden-rod. This latter was profuse, 

 and its parasite (Puccinia virgaurcce) infested nearly 

 every plant. Near the village school at Sedlescomb 

 a rich show of vervain adorned the bank, and at the 

 railway crossing below Vinehall a glorious clump of 

 this Simpler's joy reared its spikes of purple bloom. 

 It was not seen again afterwards. Between Whatling- 

 ton and Vinehall the wall lettuce is abundant, and 

 the delicate white-flowered variety of herb Robert or 

 stinking cranesbill is found. The road from Vinehall 

 lay across a park and through by-paths, fields and 

 woods to Netherfield. Many were the beautiful 

 flowers one passed at every step. Among the rarer 

 were the blue flax, abundant in the part, with hair- 

 bells, yellow hawkweeds, and lotus j the viscid 

 bartsia (Eiijragia viscosd) the sight of which for the 

 first time in my life, made the heart dance for joy ; 

 the rarer buckthorn (Rhamnus franguld) which, I 

 believe, was largely employed in olden times at Battle, 

 in the manufacture of gunpowder ; the beautiful 

 tutsan {Hypericum androscemuni), whose leaves, 

 fragrant when dry, were covered with rust (Uredo 

 liypericorum), and various fungi, mosses and other 

 interesting cryptogams too numerous to mention. 

 Netherfield church was reached shortly after eleven 

 o'clock, and a detour made towards Mountfield, for 

 the purpose of visiting the famous Wealden Boring, 

 now better known among the natives as the 'Gyptian 

 Works, because of the existence there of a profitable 

 gypsum-mine and factory. One could have spent 

 hours on the common, with its heather and bracken, 

 and fair command of rich woodland in every direc- 

 tion ; and the entomological tastes which we found 

 in existence, craved for an opportunity of obtaining 

 satisfaction. But one had to be content with gather- 

 ing the sow-thistle rust (Coleosporium sonchi-arvensis), 

 so abundant here on the yellow star-thistle, and a 

 fragment of one of the rare Anchuseae, which had 

 been robbed of all its rich blossoms, by ruthless 

 hands, and looked very disconsolate over its loss. 



The gypsum works are full of interest, both his- 

 torically aud geologically. The courteous manager 

 showed me over the whole, save that the dinner-hour 

 being so near, prevented me going down the shaft. 

 The various qualities were pointed out ; specimens of 

 the raw, burnt, refined, mixed, dry, and tested 

 materials given me ; and a hearty invitation to dinner 

 extended. This it was necessary to decline, though it 

 was reluctantly done, as the shaft and workings might 



