294 



THE GEOLOGIST. 



an after -finisliing for sale. — Eude as they are, and tbis is one of the 

 points we dwell upon in proof of their antiquity, they were used in 

 the state in which we find them, for otherwise we should find the 

 finished examples elsewhere, which as yet, at any rate, we have done 

 nowhere. "We find stone and flint celts, polished and ground ; but 

 those, as we long enough ago observed in this journal, were used by 

 the broad flat end. The large fossil flint-implements were all worked 

 to a point, and which point, contrary to anything we know of the 

 use of any other stone tool, ancient or modern, was the part used. 

 There is thus, besides the absence of chipping, one positive character 

 at least which separates the fossil implements entirely from any other 

 efl'ort of savage industry. Will M. Gras assert he has ever seen a 

 pointed weapon either ground or polished ? 



M. Gras further lays great stress on M. Gaudry having found 

 nine worked flints on the same level. "We might speak of levels in 

 regularly stratified deposits, what levels are there in a gravel-bed ? 



Taking it for granted, however, nine were found on one level, is 

 that number so large as to cause surprise ? If — why may we not 

 indulge in conjunctions? — if there were a fishing-station on the 

 spot, would nine be a large number to be presumed to be lost during 

 the sojourn of the fishermen there ? Or is there not an infinity of 

 incidents which might bring together so trifling a lot ? 



Finally, to close our comments, may we not justly ask M. Gras if 

 the flint implements belong to historic times ? Who were the men 

 that used them ?* 



NOTES ON THE GEOLOGY OF MAIDSTONE. 

 Et W. H. Bensted, Esq. 



The outcroppings of the Cretaceous strata in the valley of the 

 Medway, the great quarries in the lower beds of the greensand for 

 the much-used Kentish rags tone, the extensive chalk-pits at Burham 

 and other phices, the pottery clay-pits and the numerous brickfields, 

 aftord excellent facilities for the observation of the geological struc- 

 ture of Maidstone and the surrounding country. 



By taking the road from Eochester, through Maidstone, to Linton, 

 the outcrops of the Chalk and its subordinate beds are passed over in 

 succession across their line of strike. 



* 'riio ]('ttcr? iVoni Mr. Tcacock, jN[r. Evaus, and Mr. Blalce, in last week's 'Parthe- 

 non,' which has heen published since our remai'ks were in type, show that we have by 

 no means exhausted, eveii in our extended article, the refutations w^hich can be given to 

 M. Gras' opinions. 



