322 



THE GEOLOGIST. 



In his resume of the nature and value of the evidence, Mr. Prestwich says : — 

 " It is essential, as a preliminary step, to recollect that the argument does 

 not rest upon the evidence of skill, but upon the evidence of design. The 

 skill being rude (for the flints are only chipped into form and in no degree 

 ground down) is not always evident at first sight, and hence the existence of 

 design has been sometimes denied. Hints from the chalk hills of the district 

 itself readily supplied the material of which the flint implements are formed. 

 The exterior of all chalk-flints invariably presents a white earthy crust, from 

 which small fossils frequently project, while the interior of the flint is black or 

 dusky, but clear or semi-transparent. The fracture is conchoidal or splintery, 

 and there is no tendency to break in one direction rather than in another. It 

 may happen that a shattered flint (by whatever natural cause produced) should 



five flakes or splinters closely resembling simple forms produced by one or two 

 lows applied artificially. But here the coincidence must cease ; for it is ob- 

 vious that blows applied by hazard and resulting from natural causes, as in a 

 melee of gravel, would necessarily multiply their direction of strike in propor- 

 tion as the blows themselves were multiplied, and consequently the shape of 

 the flint would tend, up to a certain point, to become more and more irregular ; 

 whereas, on the contrary, blows applied by design, and with a given object in 

 view, would tend to give to the flint more and more finish, form, and evident 

 art. So with respect to the flints in the gravel the more broken the more 

 irregular, whereas, on the contrary, with the flint implements the more they 

 are chipped and broken the clearer is the design. 



"With regard to the possibility of the flint-implements resulting from 

 natural wear, I have already mentioned that in many of the specimens the 

 outer coat of the flint is frequently adapted and left, when possible or con- 

 venient, in the finished instrument, and such original surfaces show so little 

 trace of wear that small delicate fossils, so often found projecting on them, 

 still remain untouched. If the flint had been so extensively fashioned by wear, 

 how could one portion, and always a prominent part, have remained unworn, 

 while other portions have been so largely abraded ? Besides, the tendency of 

 wear, if sufficiently long continued, is ultimately to reduce the flints to the 

 rounded form of pebbles, a condition of things incompatible with the retention 

 of the sharp points and cutting edges of these implements. 



" Finally, we have to consider whether it is possible for the flint implements 

 to have been introduced into their present position within some comparatively 

 recent period, or whether they are contemporaneous with the accumulation of 

 the gravel ; and further, whether the remains of the large extinct mammals 

 could have been derived from some older beds, and therefore be of anterior 

 date to the flint implements. 



" These implements might have got embedded in the gravel — 1st, by artifi- 

 cial excavations ; 2ndly, by rents in the ground. To anybody accustomed to 

 the examination of drift deposits, there is little difficulty in distinguishing 

 between the fresh and uniform appearance of undisturbed beds, and the mixed 

 and confused make of made ground, independently of the occurrence of any 

 charred materials, pottery, &c, and of bones in a comparatively fresh condition. 

 The lines of original stratification once broken cannot be so restored as not to 

 show the break of continuity. In the St. Acheul pits, the several divisions of 

 the gravelly clay, b (figs. 5, 6, 7, 10, 11), and the two of the underlying sands 

 and gravel, c d, each present distinct divisional lines and differences in colour. 

 Now these lines and this bedding continue uninterruptedly over the portion of 

 the lower gravel where the flint implements are found. There is no break, no 

 disturbance, and the small delicate fossils in the sand c remain uninjured, except 

 at such places where the ground has been dug for brick-earth or otherwise 

 excavated, and then the disturbance is sufficiently apparent. At St. Acheul 



