Primaeval Man in the Valley of the Lea. 145 
the Roding. It is now extremely desirable that the other 
river-valleys of Essex should be well searched, and I commend 
this work to the members of the Essex Field Club. It would 
be well if some member would prove whether primaeval man 
certainly lived on the banks of the Stour—it is probable, for 
one or two implements have been found in a gravel-pit at 
Milford Junction on the Great Eastern Railway. Then 
there is the Blackwater River; the Crouch; the Colne, near 
Colchester; the Chelmer; and numerous affluents of the 
larger rivers. With the exception of the south-west corner, 
and part of the east and south side, the whole county of 
Essex invites exploration. The implements are abun¬ 
dant in the bordering counties of Suffolk, Middlesex, Hert¬ 
fordshire, and Cambridgeshire. There appears therefore to 
be a rich field for research in Essex, and if the implements 
are not ultimately found all over the county it will, I believe, 
be more the fault of the members of this Club than the county 
itself. 
We must now leave the contemplation of primaeval man 
and his works in the Lea Valley. After the Palaeolithic men 
had passed away, tribes of Neolithic men lived here — 
men who not only chipped but sometimes polished their 
weapons and tools of stone. Before these men arrived, 
however, the configuration of Europe had changed from what 
it was as described at the beginning of this paper to what we 
now knowit to be. In other words, Britain became severed from 
the Continent by the encroachment of the sea at the Straits 
of Dover, and the old coast-line was entirely submerged. The 
Isle of Wight was severed by the Solent Sea, and Ireland by 
St. George’s Channel and the Irish Sea. For the last 2000 
years changes of level have been unimportant. Whether the 
Neolithic men were the direct descendants, through the cave¬ 
men, of the River Drift men, or whether the Neolithic men 
came direct from some other stock, is uncertain. It is, 
however, no part of our purpose to consider the men of 
Neolithic times this evening, so we may summarily dismiss 
them with the statement that they lived (amongst other 
places) in large numbers on the banks of the Lea as we now 
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