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THE GEOLOGIST. 



" An account of flint weapons discovered at Hoxne, in Suffolk, by John Frere, 

 Esq., F.R.S., and E.A.S., in a letter to the Rev. John Brand, Secretary; read 

 June 22, 1797. 



Sir, — I take the liberty to request you to lay before the Society some flints 

 found in the parish of Hoxne, in the county of Suffolk, which, if not particularly 

 objects of curiosity in themselves, must, I think, be considered in that light, 

 from the situation in which they were found. See pi. xiv. xv. 



8 9 



From pi. xiv., "Archseologia," vol. xiii. Size I From pi. xv., " Archaeologia," vol. xiii. Size, 

 5 inches by 3 inches. 7f inches by -i inches. 



Reduced Outlines (scale one-fourth), of the Flint Implements found by Mr. Frere, at Hoxne, 

 Suffolk. A.D., 1797. 



They are, I think, evidently weapons of war, fabricated and used by people 

 who had not the use of metals. They lay in great numbers at the depth of 

 about twelve feet, in a stratified soil, which was dug for the purpose of raising 

 clay for bricks. 



The strata are as follows : — 



1. Vegetable earth, one and a half feet. 



2. Argill, seven and a half feet. 



3. Sand, mixed with shells and other marine substances, one foot. 



4. A gravelly soil, in which the flints are found, generally at the rate of five 

 or six in a square yard, two feet. 



In the same stratum are frequently found small fragments of wood, very 

 perfect when first dug up, but which soon decomposes on being exposed to the 

 air ; and, in the stratum of sand, (No. 3,) were found some extraordinary bones, 

 particularly a jaw-bone of enormous size, of some unknown animal, with the 

 beeth remaining in it. _ I was very eager to obtain a sight of this; and 

 finding u had been carried to a neighbouring gentleman, I inquired of him, but 

 learned that he had presented it, together with a large thigh bone, found in the 

 same place, to Sir Ashton Lever, and it, therefore, is probably now in Par- 

 kinson's museum. 



The situation in which these weapons are found may tempt us to refer them 

 to a very remote period indeed; even beyond that of the present world; but 

 whatever our conjectures on that head maybe, it will be diilicultto account for 

 tlu- stratum in which they lie being covered by another stratum, which, on this 

 supposition, may be conjectured to have been once the bottom of the sea. The 



