9 
PALEOLITHIC PERIOD. 
Drift Series. 
Attention was called to the human-worked flints obtained from 
the drift of the Somme Valley, by the late M. Boucher de Perthes, 
about 1840. 
In April, 1857, Mr. Prestv/ich, F.R.S., and Mr. John Evans, 
F.S.A., inspected the Abbeville beds, under the guidance of M. 
Boucher de Perthes ; and, at Amiens, Mr. Prestwich and Mr. 
Evans saw one of the pear-shaped flint implements in situ. In 
the same year Mr. J. W. Flower, F.G.S., found a pear-shaped 
flint implement in situ at Amiens ; shortly afterwards Mr. James 
Wyatt, F.G.S., and Mr. T. Rupert Jones, F.G.S., were equally 
fortunate. 
Singularly enough, a flint implement appears to have been 
found in the drift of Salisbury in 1846, although the circumstance 
has only recently been brought to light. Signor Ceselli also 
found flint flakes in the drift at Ponte-Mammolo, near Rome, 
associated with remains of elephant, rhinoceros, &c., so long 
ago as 1846; almost simultaneously, in fact, with the discoveries 
in the Somme Valley and at Salisbury. 
The specimens exhibited from the drift in the Blackmore 
Museum are classed as follows : — 
1. Flint flakes — some of which show subsequent chipping at 
the edges. 
2. Scrapers — flint flakes of a more or less semi-lunar form, 
left broad at the straight side, and with the curved edge 
blunted by a series of purposely administered blows, in 
order to give a scraping rather than a cutting edge to 
the implement. Other scrapers, approaching the neolithic 
forms, have also been found in the drift. 
3. Pointed or pear-shaped implements — having, in typical 
specimens, a rounded butt, a sharp edge at the sides, 
and a pointed end. 
4. Shoe-shaped implements — in typical specimens perfectly 
flat on the under side, and on the upper side rising 
towards the [centre in the form of a shoe, the thick end 
(heel) almost unworked, the sides and the rounded point 
(toe) brought to a sharp edge. These implements may 
have been used as adzes, the flat side resting upon a 
corresponding flat portion of the wooden handle, as with 
some stone tools in recent use among savages. 
5. Discoi'dal implements — very coarsely worked; in typical 
