360 



THE GEOLOGIST. 



made use of other stones beside flint, such as greenstone, syenite, porphyry, 

 clay-slate, jade, &c, whereas the weapons from the drift are, as far as has 

 hitherto been ascertained, exclusively of flint. As to form, the implements 

 from the drift may, for convenience sake be classed under three heads, though 

 there is so much variety among them that the classes, especially the second and 

 third, may be said to blend or run one into the other. The classification I 

 propose is as follows : — 



"I. Elint flakes, apparently intended for arrow-heads or knives. 



" 2. Pointed weapons, some probably lance- or spear-heads. 



"3. Oval or almond-shaped implements, presenting a cutting edge all round. 



" In M. de Perthes' museum, and in the engravings of his " Antiquites Cel- 

 tiques et Antediluviennes," many other forms of what he considers to be 

 implements may be seen, but upon them the traces of the hand of man are to 

 my mind less certain in character. The flints resembling in form various ani- 

 mals, birds, and other objects, must, I think, be regarded as the effect of acci- 

 dental concretion and of the peculiar colouring and fracture of flint, rather 

 than as designedly fashioned. This is, however, a question into which I need 

 not enter, as it in no way affects that now before us. Suffice it that there exists 

 an abundance of implements found in the drift which are evidently the work of 

 the hand of man, and that their formation cannot possibly be regarded as the 

 effect of accident or the result of natural causes. When once their degree of 

 antiquity has been satisfactorily proved, it will be a matter for further investi- 

 gation whether there are not other traces to be found of the race of men who 

 fashioned these implements, besides the implements themselves. 



" These objects I must now consider in the order proposed, with reference 

 to their analogies and differences in form, when compared with those of what, 

 for convenience sake, I will call the Stone period. 



" There is a considerable resemblance between the flint flakes apparently 

 intended for arrow-heads and knives (the first of the classes into which I have 

 divided the implements), and those which when found in this country, or on the 

 continent, are regarded as belonging to a period but slightly prehistoric. The fact 

 is, that wherever flint is used as a material from which implements are fashioned, 

 many of the flakes or splinters arising from the chipping of the flint, are certain 

 to present sharp points or cutting edges, which by a race of men living princi- 

 pally by the chase are equally certain to be regarded as fitting points for their 

 darts or arrows, or as useful for cutting purposes : they are so readily formed, 

 and so well adapted for such uses without any further fashioning, that they 

 have been employed in all ages just as struck from off the flint. The very 

 simplicity of their form will, however, prevent those fabricated at the earliest 

 period from being distinguishable from those made at the present day, provided 

 no change has taken place in the surface of the flint by long exposure to some 

 chemicannfluence. As also they are produced most frequently by a single 

 blow, it is at all times difficult, among a mass of flints, to distinguish those 

 flakes formed accidentally by natural causes, from those which have been made 

 by the hand of man ; an experienced eye will indeed arrive at an approximately 

 correct judgment, but from the causes I have mentioned, mere flakes of flint, 

 however analogous to what we know to have been made by human art, can 

 neve ■ be accepted as conclusive evidence of the work of man, unless found in 

 sufficienl quantities, or under such circumstances, as to prove design in their 

 formation, by their number or position. Flint flakes apparently intended for 

 arrow-heads and knives have been found in the sands and gravel near Abbeville, 

 and some were dug out of the sand at Menchecourt, in the presence of Mr. 

 Prestwich, quite at the bottom of the beds of sand. One from this locality is 

 here engraved. 



