The Quarterly journal of the Geological Society of London . gravels. The flints of this deposit havevery distinctive characters: they are of a deep brown colour; they 1 The Authenticity of Plateau-Man, Nat. Sci. vol. xi (1897) pp. 327-333. 294 ME. W. CTJNNINGTON ON PALEOLITHIC [Aug. 1898, are generally acknowledged to have been glacially scratched, andthen thinly coated with a deposit of white silica. These Paleolithicimplements show the same characters : they have the typical browncolour, the usual striae, and the white silica; in fact they wear thelivery of the plateau-gravels, in which they
The Quarterly journal of the Geological Society of London . gravels. The flints of this deposit havevery distinctive characters: they are of a deep brown colour; they 1 The Authenticity of Plateau-Man, Nat. Sci. vol. xi (1897) pp. 327-333. 294 ME. W. CTJNNINGTON ON PALEOLITHIC [Aug. 1898, are generally acknowledged to have been glacially scratched, andthen thinly coated with a deposit of white silica. These Paleolithicimplements show the same characters : they have the typical browncolour, the usual striae, and the white silica; in fact they wear thelivery of the plateau-gravels, in which they must once have beenincluded. Man therefore lived in Kent during or prior to the deposition ofthese gravels; and, as the implements are Palgeolithic, the gravelsare of Palaeolithic age. It may be urged that, having admitted somuch, it would be as well to admit that the chipped plateau-flintswere also shaped by man. It may be said that to deny that claimis no longer of any avail, the existence of plateau-man having been Pig. 3.~m. 784, from Faheham (Kent).. The edge-chipping in this case was produced after the implementhad been finished by PalaeoHthic man. (8x7 cm.) conceded. Put the discovery of the Palaeolithic age of the plateau-gravels, though an important contribution to the geology of Kent,is a smaller matter than the claim that the West Kent plateau wasthe home of a pre-Palaeolithic people whose implements carryus nearer than any yet known to the dim red dawn of man.^ The Palaeolithic specimens found by Mr. Harrison prove theauthenticity of plateau-man, which is a local question, but it is byevidence that I hold to be absolutely fatal to the authenticity of Vol. 54.] IMPLEMENTS FROM THE PLATEATJ-GRAVELS. 295 Eolithic man, which is the general question that has given theseflints such wide interest. The most instructive of these plateau-specimens is No. 784 (fig. 3),a broken implement of the oval type. To understand its significancelet us examine in detail the evidence whic
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