364 
THE GEOLOGIST. 
and with a nearer approach to an even surface, than those from the drift, and, 
rude as they may appear, point to a higher degree of civilization than that of the 
race of men by whom these primitive weapons or implements were formed. 
" 1 think that enough has been said to make it apparent to all who have 
made a study of the stone implements usually found (those of the so-called 
Stone period) that the spear-heads and sling stones, or axes, or by whatever 
name they are to be called, which are now brought under their notice, have but 
little in common with the types already known; they will therefore be prepared 
to receive with less distrust the evidence that they are found under circumstances 
which show that, in all probability, the race of men who fashioned them must 
have passed away long before this portion of the earth was occupied by the 
primitive tribes by whom the more polished forms of stone weapons were fabri- 
cated, in what we have hitherto regarded as remote antiquity. 
" In the cultivated soil and made ground above, and at much less depth from 
the surface, ground and polished instruments, evidently belonging to the so- 
called Stone period, have indeed been found ; but this again only tends to prove 
that the shaped flints discovered at much greater depth belonged to some other 
race of men ; and inasmuch as they certainly are not the work of a subsequent 
people, we have here again a testimony that they must be referred to some 
antecedent race, which had perished perhaps ages before the Celtic occupation 
of the country. The similarity in form between the flint -implements from the 
drift, and those found in the cave-deposits that I have previously mentioned, is 
also a circumstance well worthy of observation." 
Mr. Evans then goes over the geological evidence furnished by Mr. Prestwich, 
and details the finding of one implement, in situ, by Mr. Elower, which ground 
it would be superfluous for us to go over again, as the chief part of Mr. Evans' 
geological data is derived directly from Mr. Prestwich. 
PROCEEDINGS OF GEOLOGICAL SOCIETIES. 
Geological Society of London. — June 19, 1861. 
1. "On the Lines of Deepest "Water around the British Isles." By the 
Rev. R. Everest, E.G.S. 
By drawing on a chart a line traversing the deepest soundings along the Eng- 
lish Channel and the Eastern Coast of England and Scotland, continuing it 
along the hundred-fathom-line on the Atlantic side of Scotland and Ireland, 
' and connecting with it the line of deepest soundings along St. George's Channel, 
an unequal-sided hexagonal figure is described around the British Isles, and a 
pentagonal figure around Ireland. A hexagonal polygon may be similarly 
defined around the Isle of Arran. These lines were described in detail by the 
author, who pointed out that they limited areas similar to the polygonal'form 
that stony or earthy bodies take in shrinking, either in the process of cooling 
or in drying. The relations of the hundred-fathom-line to the promontories, 
the inlets, and general contour of the coast were dwelt upon ; and the bearings 
that certain lines drawn across the British Isles from the projecting angles of 
the polygon appear to have on the strike and other conditions of the strata 
were described. After some remarks on the probable effect that shrinkage of 
the earth's crust must have on the ejection of molten rock, the author observed 
that in his opinion, the action of shrinking is the only one we know of that 
will afford any solution of the phenomena treated of in this paper, namely, 
