364 



THE GEOLOGIST. 



and with a nearer approach to an even surface, than those from the drift, and, 

 rude as they may appear, point to a higher degree of civilization than that of the 

 race of men by whom these primitive weapons or implements were formed. 



" I think that enough has been said to make it apparent to all who have 

 made a study of the stone implements usually found (those of the so-called 

 Stone period) that the spear-heads and sling stones, or axes, or by whatever 

 name they are to be called, which are now brought under their notice, have but 

 little in common with the types already known; they will therefore be prepared 

 to receive with less distrust the evidence that they are found under circumstances 

 which show that, in all probability, the race of men who fashioned them must 

 have passed away long before this portion of the earth was occupied by the 

 primitive tribes by whom the more polished forms of stone weapons were fabri- 

 cated, in what we have hitherto regarded as remote antiquity. 



" In the cultivated soil and made ground above, and at much less depth from 

 the surface, ground and polished instruments, evidently belonging to the so- 

 called Stone period, have indeed been found ; but this again only tends to prove 

 that the shaped flints discovered at much greater depth belonged to some other 

 race of men ; and inasmuch as they certainly are not the work of a subsequent 

 people, we have here again a testimony that they must be referred to some 

 antecedent race, which had perished perhaps ages before the Celtic occupation 

 of the country. The similarity in form between the flint-implements from the 

 drift, and those found in the cave-deposits that I have previously mentioned, is 

 also a circumstance well worthy of observation." 



Mr. Evans then goes over the geological evidence furnished by Mr. Prestwich, 

 and details the finding of one implement, in situ, by Mr. Flower, which ground 

 it would be superfluous for us to go over again, as the chief part of Mr. Evans 5 

 geological data is derived directly from Mr. Prestwich. 



PROCEEDINGS OF GEOLOGICAL SOCIETIES. 



Geological Society of London. — June 19, 1861. 



1. " On the Lines of Deepest Water around the British Isles." By the 

 Rev. It. Everest, F.G.S. 



By drawing on a chart a line traversing the deepest soundings along the Eng- 

 lish Channel and the Eastern Coast of England and Scotland, continuing it 

 along the hundred-fathom-line on the Atlantic side of Scotland and Ireland, 

 and connecting with it the line of deepest soundings along St. George's Channel, 

 an unequal-sided hexagonal figure is described around the British Isles, and a 

 pentagonal figure around Ireland. A hexagonal polygon may be similarly 

 defined around the Isle of Arran. These lines were described in detail by the 

 author, who pointed out that they limited areas similar to the polygonal "form 

 that stony or earthy bodies take in shrinking, either in the process of cooling 

 or in drying. The relations of the hundred-fathom-line to the promontories, 

 the inlets, and general contour of the coast were dwelt upon; and the bearings 

 thai certain lines drawn across the British Isles from the projecting angles of 

 the polygon appear to have on the strike and other conditions of the strata 

 were described. After some remarks on the probable effect that shrinkage of 

 the earth's crust must have on the ejection of molten rock, the author observed 

 that in his opinion, the action of shrinking is the only one we know of that 

 will afford any solution of the phenomena treated of *in this paper, namely, 



