222 On the Recent Discovery of Flint Implements 



discussions on this border land, where archaeology and geology 

 naturally meet. 



A careful examination of a good series such as may be seen in 

 the Christy or Blackmore Museums, or in the private collections 

 of Mr. John Evans, Mr. J. W. Flower, or Mr. J. Wyatt of Bedford, 

 would speedily convince any unprejudiced person, at all conversant 

 with the natural fracture of flint, that these objects bear evidence 

 of design, and are the result of man's forethought and skill. Before 

 however noticing these implements, it will be interesting to offer 

 a few remarks upon the drift in the immediate vicinity of Salisbury. 



The brick-earth of Fisherton has long been known to geologists, 

 a paper having been read by Sir Charles Lyell before the Geological 

 Society of London as early as the year 1827. In 1854 the deposit 

 was more fully described by Mr. Prestwich, and a careful list of the 

 land and fresh-water shells was added by the late Mr. John Brown 

 of Stan way. (Journ. of Geolog. Soc. vol. xi.) Fisherton was also 

 noticed by Mr. Cunnington in a valuable paper on the " Mammalian 

 Drift of Wilts.," which appeared in the 4th vol. of the Society's 

 Magazine. And more recently in 1864, my friend Mr. John Evans 

 accompanied his excellent account of the discovery of flint im- 

 plements, with a greatly extended list of the Shells and Mammalian 

 remains. This geological notoriety is well deserved, for no 

 single spot in England has as yet produced so great a variety 

 or so important a fauna as Fisherton ; indeed remains of the 

 spermophiles and lemmings have not as yet been found elsewhere 

 in the drift of this country. 1 Other deposits of brick-earth and 

 drift gravel occur in scattered patches along the whole course of the 

 river Avon and its tributary streams, it will however be only 



! The late Dr. Falconer identified, amongst the fossils from the Mendip Caverns 

 in the Williams collection, two lower jaws of a species of Spermophilus which 

 he named S. erythrogenoides. I have not had. an opportunity of examining 

 these fossils, but think it probable they may prove the same as that described by 

 Professor Kaup under the name of S. super ciliosus. During the autumn of 

 this year, Mr. J. W. Flower obtained from Wokey Hole the teeth and bones of 

 many small rodents, which he kindly sent me for examination, amongst them 

 I was pleased to find numerous remains of the Ringed Lemming Lemmustorquatus * 

 Both these discoveries however are in Caves, the exact geological age of which it 

 is always difficult to determine. 



