170 
POPULAR SCIENCE REVIEW. 
were to be found abundantly in the surface soil at Baggy Point, 
near Croyde, on the north of Devon, as well as along the coast. 
The assertion by archaeologists that these flint flakes are the 
result of human labour, either, as in the more perfectly adapted 
forms, of design, or as the waste material left in the effort to 
produce those forms, has given an interest and importance to 
them, as the only means left to us by which we may interpret 
the unwritten record of the early inhabitants of these islands. 
It is, therefore, with the hope of throwing some light on the 
subject, in its relation to the early history of the people, that the 
connection of these flint flakes with the geological conditions of 
the soil in which they are found, is here brought forward. 
Near the small village of Croyde, at a place called Baggy 
Point, the flint flakes appear to be abundantly spread over the 
face of the hills and cultivated fields of the district. 
Here, borderiog on the sea shore, at the entrance to a little 
vale, through which a small stream of fresh water runs, these 
flints appear to have collected in considerable quantities. 
The soil in which they are deposited is evidently the accumu- 
lation of the superficial soil of the hill, having been gradually 
brought into the valley, and possibly with it some few of the 
more superficially deposited flakes ; but if so, they could not 
have been borne from afar, or they would exhibit signs of 
having been rolled or worn smooth by friction, of which there 
is not the slightest evidence. 
Interspersed with these flints have been found other stones 
and evidences of the most primitive kind of human industry. 
These mostly exist in the form of smoothly-rounded pebble 
stones, evidently brought from the sea beach beneath, and 
which, from their pitted and polished condition, afford evidence 
of having been used as hammers and whetstones. 
Two or three fragments of pottery have been found by Mr. 
Hall, and one by Mr. Whitley, that the latter believes to be the 
remains of the same utensil which Mr. Hall describes ( Intel- 
lectual Observer , December, 1865, p. 355), as being “just 
sufficient to identify as having originally belonged to an urn, or 
some vessel of similar shape, which, when perfect, must have 
been 8^ inches in diameter. One of the portions contains a 
small projection, evidently intended to serve as a handle. Bits 
of quartz have been worked up with the clay, so as to give 
it greater consistency. It is fashioned rudely by the hand, sun 
baked, and totally destitute of any attempt at ornamentation,” 
The specimen procured by Mr. Whitley, and which now lies 
before me, according to my own judgment, has the appearance 
of being fire baked, and the presence of the bits of quartz seems 
to be accounted for only from the supposition of the manufac- 
turers being too ignorant, or too indolent, to remove such great 
j 
