292 



THE aEOLOGIST, 



speciality, these very quaternary beds ; aud if any man's knowledge 

 or judgment is to be relied upon for an opinion as to the age or 

 nature of such deposits, assuredly it is his. Cautious in the extreme 

 in adventuring conclusions, and fastidiously painstaking in collecting 

 facts and testing the accuracy of his observations, no cooler intellect 

 could discuss and put in intelligible order such intricate conditions 

 as the gravel-beds to the inexperienced present. Those who have 

 read his late masterly communications to the Eoyal Society will need 

 no comments of ours to satisfy them of the accuracy of the views ex- 

 pressed, and of the ability of their autlior. But, to reply to M. Gras' 

 suppositions, deferring the flint-implements to historic times for 

 their origin, M. Grras states : — 1. That the malcers were not obliged to 

 go very far for their material. — True, they were not obliged, ^/'— and 

 the whole summary involves a constant use of the little conjunction 

 — they did mahe the implements on the gravel-banks in w^hich they 

 have been embedded. This is by no means certain ; but one thing is 

 quite sure, we have ourselves seen — and handled — a veritable flint- 

 implement from the valley of the Somme, which, although found in 

 the gravel-bed, wajs undoubtedly and unmistakably, — we were born 

 in a chalk district, and on the sea-coast, so we know well what flints 

 and pebbles are, — made out of a flint nodule taken directly out of the 

 chalk rock. 



In this case, therefore, the primitive manufacturer went at least to 

 the side of the valley to get material which, according to M. Gras, 

 he had, and quite as good, on the gravel-bank under his feet. If the 

 manufacturer could be supposed to have worn breeches, he might be 

 supposed to have pocketed a fine nodule which he chanced to fall in 

 with on a pleasure-ramble ; but as he cannot be presumed to have so 

 clothed his lower extremities, that presumption is untenable. 



As a rule, we fancy that very many of the implements w^ere made 

 of flints directly taken from the Chalk ; such flints would be prefer- 

 able, generally, to gravel-flints, although suitable specimens could 

 undoubtedly be collected from the gravel-beds, but not so abundantly 

 as M. Gras infers. That some implements were made of large 

 quaternary flint pebbles, the specimens from Heme Bay are indubi- 

 table evidence. 



2. The digging of the flints hy means of pits or galleries— Setting 

 aside the improbability of men digging for what they could find with- 

 out labour on the surface, what, in the name of all mysteries, had 

 those poor primitive savages to dig with f Flint-implements ? It 



