Notes and Conunents. 



229 



something- more definite had been arrived at, or at any rate that 

 some new fact had been brought forward in support of his 

 theory. But no, the same old story, rehashed, with just a little 

 more 'spice' added. The article is also illustrated by the now 

 exceedingly familiar sketch of the Scunthorpe and Vindhya 

 Hills flints, reproduced at much less than actual size.^ After 

 dwelling- on the fact that similar objects occur in England and 

 in India, we find Mr. Gatty states ' The presence of various 

 types in one locality is no sure proof that they were contem- 

 porary ; and so far I think the evidences are in favour of 

 crediting the pigmy-flint makers with being a distinct race. 

 At any rate my own experience supports that idea, and the 

 discoveries I made in North Lincolnshire are so extraordinary 

 that I think there is little doubt about the matter.' Later, 

 ' I think it would be fair to say that Avhile collecting 2,000 

 Anglo-Indidn pigmies [i.e., pigmy-flints I] I have got 50 

 neoliths.' 



AX EARLY LXDLAX IX\'ASIOX. 



Mr. Gatty thinks it would be unfair to his readers if he 

 closed his paper without expressing his own views. ' From the 

 top of the common, where the flints are found, you can see 

 a few miles away the broad stream of the Humber where the 

 Trent joins it. If [that little word Ij a migration from India 

 took place in Neolithic times, one could imagine the rude 

 vessel of those days being rowed up with the tide, and dis- 

 embarking its strange occupants near to where they could take 

 up a position on the high ground. It is true the sandy and 

 almost waterless common would offer poor accommodation and 

 means of support ; but we need not suppose they remained 

 there for any length of time. I have shown that they moved 

 on, at any rate, as far as the Pennine Range, and no doubt 

 traces of them would be met with in other directions if people 

 nowadays only used their eyes more. It requires, I know, 

 sharp sight to detect a pigmy flint.' Mr. Gatty apparently has 



In the 'Field Xaturalists' Quarterly' for May 1903 some 'Flint 

 Implements from Scunthorpe, Natural Size,' are figured. The same 

 implements are also fig^ured in the recent paper above referred to. In 

 the latter case, however, the drawings are larger than in the ' Field 

 Naturalists' Quarterly,' but notwithstanding- this, judging from a scale 

 which accompanies them, they are only reproduced half natural size. 

 No doubt our author will be having another paper on the subject, some- 

 where, when we trust we may see the 'Pigmy-flints' really reproduced 

 actual size. 

 1905 August I. 



