ANTIQUITY OF THE PILTDOWN RACE 315 
was found to be over 100 feet in length, one end ex- 
tending so as to open on the free face of the escarpment. 
Its depth was found to be over 12 feet. It was narrow 
and filled in with sand and gravel, which do not now 
occur on the surface of the plateau at Dewlish ; and in the 
gravel were found remains of elephants of the ancient 
kind found at St Prest and at Cromer — Elephas 
meridionalis — which is accepted as a true representative 
of the Pliocene period. In the gravel also occurred 
certain flints which were regarded by Mr Grist ^ as similar 
to the eoliths^ of the Kentish plateau. Mr Clement 
Reid inspected' the trench — the only one of the kind 
known — and found it did not represent any cleft or fault 
produced by natural agencies. No stream could have 
produced such a trench ; there is no stream now on the 
plateau. Mr Fisher could only account for it on the 
supposition that it was dug by the hands of man, and was 
designed, like similar trenches at the present day, as an 
elephant trap. If Mr Fisher's inference is right, and no 
other satisfactory explanation has been offered, we have the 
startling revelation that in the Pliocene period mankind 
had already reached an advanced stage in his evolution. 
We have already mentioned the sub-Crag implements 
discovered by Mr Reid Moir (p. 225). They indicate 
the existence of human beings towards the middle of the 
Pliocene period. The Kentish eoliths are as ancient — 
perhaps more ancient — than the sub-Crag implements. 
When, therefore, we take into consideration these facts, 
and the similarity between the Piltdown and St Prest 
deposits, we are persuaded that Mr Dawson and Dr Smith 
Woodward were ultra-cautious in assigning a Pleistocene 
date to the human remains found at Piltdown. All the 
evidence seems to point to a Pliocene age. Hence the 
importance of their discovery, for although the handiwork 
of Pliocene man has been recognised for a considerable 
number of years, the man himself was unknown until 
Mr Dawson brought him into the light of day. 
1 C. J. Grist, " Some Eoliths from Dewlish, and the Question of Origin," 
Joiirn. Roy. Anthrop. Inst., 1910, vol. xl. p. 192. 
