46 
Mr. Fitch I saw a collection of flint implements from the gravel-bed of the 
Little Ouse. I said, “ Here are certain shapes which to my mind convey 
the impression that they are of human workmanship, but how far will that 
impression be modified when I get to the gravel-pits in which the imple- 
ments were found ? Shall I find single specimens myself, or shall I find 
that there are dozens or scores like these, and so be able to connect the 
ordinary form of the gravel flints with these flint implements ? ” I went 
down to those gravel-beds, and the result was that I did not succeed in 
meeting with a single specimen of these flint implements, nor did I meet 
with any form of flint which seemed to connect those in Mr . Fitch’s cabinet 
with the ordinary flints in those pits. Now, if the flints belonging to Mr. 
Fitch’s collection had been produced by accidental fractures, what should I 
have found ? Why, every possible link between those specimens and the 
ordinary forms of which the gravel-beds were composed. 
Mr. Whitley. — So you can. 
Mr. Charlesworth. — No, there was a wide gap between the two, and I 
give this as a practical illustration of a fact which every one present can test 
for himself. 
Mr. Whitley. — I beg to say that Sir Charles Lyell does state that he 
thinks it reasonable to assume that these beads formed the necklaces of 
Palaeolithic men. He does not say so in so many words in his text ; but he 
puts it at the head of one of his pages in his book on The Antiquity of Man* 
Dr. Carpenter. — Perhaps, as I have paid special attention to this subject, 
I may be allowed to say one or two words upon it. I have brought with me 
one of these supposed Palaeolithic relics, and it is rather larger than Mr. 
Whitley’s. The “beads,” as they are termed, arc, no doubt, organized bodies, 
and there is also no doubt that they grew in this globular form. I appre- 
hend that they grew very often round the stem of a zoophyte, and that 
this left a natural perforation. Here are some that were picked up by Mr. 
Prestwich, at Newhaven, and in their case you will see that the natural perfo- 
ration often does not go through. I do not say that all these perforated beads 
were artificially bored ; I only say that Mr. Whitley has not disproved the 
probability that some of them were. If you go to any chalk district and 
pick up a number of these things, you will find that some have a hole 
right through, while others are merely dimpled. It is of course a curious cir- 
cumstance, supposing this statement to be true, that only the perforated ones 
* Sir Charles says, “ Granting that there were natural cavities in the axis 
of some of them, it does not follow that these may not have been taken 
advantage of for stringing them as beads, while others may have been artifi- 
cially bored through. Dr. Rigollot’s argument in favour of their having 
been used as necklaces or bracelets, appears to me a sound one. He says 
he often found small heaps or groups of them in one place, all perforated, 
just as if, when swept into the river’s bed by a flood, the bond which had 
united them together remained unbroken.” ( Antiquity of Man,” 4th ed., 
p. 166.) The page is headed, “ Globular Sponges artificially per- 
forated.” 
