WTYATT — ON FLINT IMPLEMENTS AT BEDFORD. 



2 L5 



boon taken out of the gravel pit in the adjoining field, excavated to 

 a lower depth than usual. This specimen is figured in accompanying 

 Plates III. and IV. 



It was suggested in Mr. Prestwich's paper read before the Geolo- 

 gical Society, that examinations should be made in other parts of the 

 country where the Drift occurs ; but our friends who undertake that 

 duty must not be turned from their purpose by some few fruitless 

 searches. I have constantly examined the drift in the vicinity of 

 Bedford for several years before I succeeded in finding any specimen 

 of the Mint-implements. It is true that if the pleistocene drift can 

 be determined in any district, there is a probability of these relics 

 being found also; but these must be diligently worked for; and, as 

 Mr. Prestwich has remarked, the motto of the workers should be 

 " Nil desperandum." 



Note on the Smaller Kind of Large Flint-Implements, by the 

 Editor. — The specimen from Bedford, of which we figure both aspects 

 in PI. iii. and iv., is an example of the smaller kind of large flint-imple- 

 ments, generally regarded as spear-heads, or as hatchets; but with- 

 out asserting them not to have been used for one or other of such pur- 

 poses, we would point out that while the one side, or edge from c to d, is 

 finely chipped out, the other is not so for its entire length : one por- 

 tion, a to b, being either split off fiat, as in the present example, or 

 left un worked, presenting the natural surface of the flint, some portion 

 of which will be seen also below the truncated part in our figures. If 

 t hese ins! ruments be held in the hand this flat part will fit against the 

 palm, generally of the right hand, but some will be held easily only 

 in the left. The suggestion we would make from this is Whether 

 they may not have been used in the hand as flaying-knives to strip 

 off the skins ot the great beasts slain with the larger spears, or with 

 flake-arrows ? 



We do not wish even to insist on this suggestion ; but we are the 

 rather actuated to make it, as very little effort seems as yet to have 

 been made to compare the adaptation of these ancient weapons to 

 the nature and character of the operations they were required to 

 perform. To conpare the fossil implements with those in use by 

 the savage tribes of the present day, or with those found in human 

 graves is right enough, but it is only one sort of comparison. The 

 savage peoples of the present time have no such gigantic beasts as 

 the mammoth and its now fossil congeners to contend with, — the 

 African chase of the elephant, only, being the nearest approach — nor 

 had those of the "grave" period; and it seems only right that we 

 should therefore pass beyond the bounds of mere comparison in our 

 study of their fossil implements, and endeavour to make out and un- 

 derstand the necessary modification of the weapons employed in 

 the pursuit and slaughter of the great beasts, as well as in their own 

 domestic operations, by that primitive race by whom these flint- 



