27 
The Chairman. — I am sure all will join with me in thanking Mr. Pattison 
for his paper. (Cheers.) 
The Hon. Secretary. — I have received a letter on this paper from 
Mr. Whitley, who says : — 
“ Mr. Pattison refers to the flints found in Brixham Cavern as implements 
worked by man. After a searching examination of this cavern and the sur- 
face formations around it, it is my opinion that there is satisfactory evidence 
to prove that the so-called flint knives are only subsoil flakes, which are 
found in similar gravel and loam, both within and without the cavern, and 
that they are fragmentary and imperfect of their kind. These flints are now 
deposited in the Christy Museum, Victoria-street, and may be seen on any 
Friday. I minutely inspected them on the 19th inst., and compared them 
with those which I had found in the soil above the cavern, and the evidence 
of their relationship in form, in fracture, and in colour, was most complete. 
Not only is this so, but all the corroborative evidence which has been 
put forward has completely broken down. The remarkably symmetrical 
scraper figured by Mr. Evans in his ‘ Ancient Stone Implements’ (fig. 412) 
has been found to be a surface implement placed among the others by 
mistake, and has been withdrawn from the specimens. ‘ The portion of a 
cylindrical pin or rod of ivory/ relied on by Mr. Evans as the only object 
wrought from an animal substance found in the cavern, is not now placed 
in the company of the flints. Of this relic Mr. Pengelly, who superintended 
the exploration of the cave, says : ‘ I have no recollection of this specimen, 
and, as Mr. Prestwich says its position is not certain, I am inclined to sus- 
pect that it does not belong to the cavern series of specimens. It may, I 
believe, be safely stated that every object forwarded to the Committee was 
numbered by myself, and that its position was duly recorded in the register.’* 
The assumed evidence of wear by use is only the broken and jagged 
edges, which every fractured flint knocked about in a mass of gravel shows 
more or less on its angles. For many years past Visitors to the cave have 
been shown a plaster model of a most perfect and large flint flake, said to 
be a representation of one of the flint knives deposited in the rooms of the 
Geological Society, but no such flint is found amongst those now in the 
Christy Museum. The public have been deceived, and the delusion of 
‘ knives ’ supported. Having made so searching an investigation of the 
evidence produced from this cavern in support of the high antiquity of 
man, and given the results in a paper react before this Institute, I cannot 
allow my friend, Mr. Pattison, to dislodge me from the ground which I have 
won and fortified, by the assumption that these ragged flints are human 
implements. I trust that the members of the Victoria Institute will visit 
the Christy Museum and judge for themselves. 
“ N. Whitley.” 
Mr. Pattison.- — I have looked over collections of flints with Mr. Whitley, 
and, among them, those from Brixham ; but though we agreed about most, 
there were two or three which bore undoubted traces of design, and I attri- 
buted them to human workmanship — I could not do otherwise. Of course, 
I admit that many of the bushels and tons of edged flints that are found, are 
* Transactions of Devonshire Association for the Advancement of Science, 
vol. vi. p. 836. 
