33
"PRIMAEVAL MAN IN THE VALLEY OF
THE LEA."
By WORTHINGTON G. SMITH, F.L.S., M.A.I., etc.
My notes on this subject, published in the "Transactions of the
Essex Field Club" for June, 1883 (vol. iii., p. 102), were tolerably
complete to date, but the paper published in the "Journal of the
Anthropological Institute" in 1884 (vol. xiii.) contained many new
facts. The latter paper was, however, greatly hurried at the moment
of publication, so that there was insufficient time to finish several of
the illustrations. A few new facts have cropped up since 1884, and
I have also engraved a few additional illustrative blocks. Under
these circumstances, it has been thought well to bring the subject a
little more up to date by
the publication of the ad-
ditional engravings and
notes. The paper pub-
lished in the Essex
Naturalist for February
last, p. 36, on Palaeolithic
implements and flakes
found very near the source
of the Lea, at Wheathamp-
stead, Harpenden, and
Luton, may be taken as a
kind of supplement to the subject as investigated near London.
Replaced Flakes.
To Mr. F. C. J. Spurrell, of Belvidere, a member of the Essex
Field Club, belongs the honour of first replacing Palaeolithic flakes
on to the blocks of flint from which they were originally struck. I
shall never forget reading for the first time of this remarkable
achievement. The replacement seemed thoroughly impossible, yet
I knew it must be a fact, The reading of Mr. Spurrell's work is as
deeply impressed on my mind as my first reading of the discoveries
of M. Boucher de Perthes at Abbeville at the time when the great
discussion was going on in 1858-9.
I have not been able to equal Mr, Spurrell's grand restorations,
although I have in four instances replaced Palaeolithic flakes. I
know of no other persons who have been able to perform the feat