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friction in the gravel, and therefore I spent some time that evening in 
applying the friction in question to the newly made implement. On 
the following day we went to the gravels about twenty- eight miles from 
St. 'Acheul, where M. Boucher de Perthes obtained his collection of 
implements. We asked to see what stones they had, and they showed 
us a few. We did not consider them very convincing ; but taking the 
flint, which I have already shown you, out of my pocket, I said, “ What 
do you think that is ? ” “ Oh,” said the man to whom I showed 
it, “ it is undoubtedly a Paleolithic implement.” I said, “ How old 
do you think it is?” “Oh!” he replied, “thousands and thousands of 
years.” “ What leads you to think so ? ” I asked. “ I can tell at once that 
that is thousands and thousands of years old,” he replied. “ Well,” I said, 
“ I saw it made only twenty-four hours ago.” The man laughed, and passed 
it round to the other workmen. However, there is the fact that they had 
mistaken this newly made implement for a real Paleolithic stone. When 
I came home, I put it by the side of another flint, which about four years 
ago was sold to me as a genuine Paleolithic implement. I compared the 
two, and said, “ Is the older one of natural formation ? ” It puzzled me, 
for the new one was apparently brother to it, and it struck me that the 
man who made the one could have made the other. Therefore, I recom- 
mend any one, in deciding a question of this kind, to be very careful how 
he attributes the good implements to Paleolithic workmanship. I could go 
one step further, but in doing so I must withhold names. Some of these 
flints I had with me at a meeting of the Geological Society, and one 
of the experts on this very question asked to look at them. He said, 
“ You have got some treasures there, Mr. Callard.” I replied, “ Yes, I have 
been in the Somme, and brought home some specimens.” “ Yes,” he said, 
“ and very good specimens, too.” I asked him, “ Do you think they are 
the work of man ? ” and added, “You know there have been such things 
as forgeries ; are you sure that this is not a forgery ? ” He looked again, 
and said, “ There is no forgery here ; they are genuine Paleolithic imple- 
ments.” “Well,” I replied, “I could not have a much higher authority 
than yourself.” He answered, “ I think I know as much about flint imple- 
ments as any one living.” There being some other geologists present, I did 
not like publicly to point out his mistake, but subsequently I wrote him a 
letter, telling him the fact. He replied that it was most extraordinary that 
he should have been taken in by a St. Acheul forgery, adding, “ It shows 
the danger of giving an opinion by artificial light, and after one has dined.” 
(Laughter.) He made a joke of it ; but it is more than a joke, especially 
when we remember how we have been led step by step in this doctrine of 
evolution, and that those flint implements have been used to back the 
doctrine up. We ought, I say, to be upon our guard, in visiting such a 
Museum as that of M. Boucher de Perthes. He is now dead, but I 
remember once, when visiting that Museum, I asked the person representing 
him, if he would point out to me the implements which M. de Perthes 
had, with his own hand, taken out of the gravels. He said, “ I cannot do 
