CORRESPONDE^rCE. 



343 



filiiro riiilosoplucal Society; and also to * Tlie Colt, the Eoman, and tlio 

 Saxon,' by T. Wri^rht, Esq. 



At tlie conclusion of the article alluded to, the following question is 

 asked: "Will M. Gras assort he has ever soon a pointed woajjon either 

 ground or polished?" As this question is put to M. Gras under the im- 

 pression that there are no such pointed tools or weapons, I may state 

 there are such in my collection, though I confess they are by no means 

 common, for, during the wdiole period that I have devoted to collecting 

 those things, I have found but three. 



The majority of ray rudest weapons and tools were found at greater 

 depths, generally s])eaking, than those which are more elaborately worked, 

 and tlie transition in Yorkshire from the rude to the more highly finished 

 implements may be said to have been gradual and apparently uninter- 

 rupted ; for w^e find on the same land at various depths, first the most 

 artistic, then a little lower others ruder in shape, and a few inches above 

 the Chalk they are found amongst gravel through w^hich water highly 

 charged w^ith oxide of iron has percolated, thereby changing the colour of 

 the flints there embedded, which are generally very rude in their make. 

 Many of the arrowheads and spear-points exhibit quite a porcellaneous 

 a])pearance, which betokens their great antiquity. Those discovered in 

 sandy places are of the natural colour, but are very bright on the surface. 



There can be little doubt that flint-implements were used up to a com- 

 paratively late date.* If in Yorkshire-weapons and tools to be coated with 

 carbonate of lime and stained with oxide of iron, and also ground at the point, 

 be an indication of their antiquity, then the Yorkshire flints are as old as 

 any hitherto found. And w^hy should it not be so ? " seeing that w^e find 

 ordinary gravel-^^intB in myriads on the surface of the soil. Can you go 

 through any field, over any downs, across any chalk country, and not pick 

 up, if you please, tons upon tons or cartload upon cartload ? If one 

 sort, why not then another? Is the proportion of flint-implements to un- 

 workod stones likely to be less in the disintegrated gravel-bed strewn over 

 the soil than in the solid untouched stratum lying intact in the earth ? 

 And if not, are we less likely to find flint-implernents on the surface of the 

 soil than in the gravel-beds beneath it ? We are sure we need not reply to 

 these questions : our readers will have answered for themselves." 



Yours, etc., 



JBridlington, Yor^Jcshire. Edw\ Tindall. 



[The article on M. Gras was written by me, and why my name did not 

 a])pcar was quite a matter of accident. All the w^orld knows that I never 

 hesitate to speak out ; but all the world knows that if I do say a thing 

 not exactly kind I have good grounds — or at least sincerely believe I have 

 • — before I say it. I have said I am satisfied some of the so-termed " hachos 

 reputed to bo from St. Acheul " may be " hachcs" from St. Acheul, but 

 ai'o not fossil "haches" at all. They are rank forgeries. With respect 



* It was the constant policy of the Romans to draught off the rising population of the 

 C()n(|Ucro(l provinces, and send tlieni to occupy stations, and, in fact, to form cohmics in 

 odicr counlrics. AVe find nu-ntioned in old writers and in inscriptions numerous alee 

 and cohorts of Britons in various parts of the Roman empire. According to tlie ' No- 

 tilia,' the fourth ala of liritous was stationed in Egyjit. The twenty-sixth cohort of 

 ]?rit()us occurs in Armenia. A body of the " Invincible Younger liritons " were sta- 

 tioned in Spain ; and oue of the "Elder Britons" in Illyricum. The "Younger British 

 Sliiigcrs" {fundi tores) are fouiul anu)ng Palatine auxiliaries. See "Wright's 'Celt, 

 Koinau, and Saxon,' i'oot-nolc, p. lUl. See the abovc-mcutioued ' Notitia,' book iv. 

 chap. X. pp. I'JO, 200, etc. 



