NOTES. 93
to reveal themselves on solution of this material, it would be an interesting reve-
lation if the tartar found on these teeth of the stone age could be made to give up
its secrets in a similar manner. He accordingly carefully decalcified some small
portions with dilute hydrochloric acid, and examined the sediment under the
microscope. The sediment consisted of small drab-coloured masses, apparently
composed chiefly of altered and disintegrated epithelial scales mixed with the
contents of starch cells. Throughout these masses were scattered grains of sand
in great abundance : polarized light showed these to be of two kinds, some being
composed of silex and others of quartz or granite. Their presence was to be
accounted for by the method of grinding corn between two gritty stones practised
in those times, and the grinding surfaces of the teeth were worn down in the most
extraordinary manner from the same cause. Besides these, scattered through the
sediment, Mr. White was able to identify portions of husks of corn, hairs from the
outside of the husks, spiral vessels from vegetables, husks of starch, the point of
a fish's tooth, a conglomeration of oval cells, probably of fruit, barblets of
feathers, portions of wool, and some fragments of cartilage, together with some
other organic remains which he failed to recognise. "Long" barrows are con-
sidered by archaeologists to be older than the round barrows, and it is thought
probable that they contain the relics of the earliest inhabitants of Britain of whom
any sepulchral monuments exist. This opinion is based upon the fact that no
weapons or implements of metal of any kind have ever been found in them,
though weapons of bone and stone are occasionally met with. The pottery, also,
found in them is of the rudest kind, and quite devoid of ornament. The fact that
vegetable tissue should be found in such a state as to be easily recognisable after
the lapse of probably not less than three thousand years [? Ed.] is certainly remark-
able ; whilst the presence of fragments of wool and feathers would seem to
indicate that these people were accustomed to eat their food in an uncooked con-
dition.—" British Medical Journal," April 2nd, 1887.
Cleptes nitidula, Latr. (Chrysididae) at Benfleet.—In the "Abstract
of Proceedings of the South London Entomological Society," under date July 15th,
1886, it is recorded that Mr. T. R. Billups exhibited Cleptes nitidula, Latr.,
taken at Benfleet, Essex, on the 5th July. The specimens were taken on
flowers of the common cow parsnip (Heracleum spondilium, L.). Mr. Billups
stated that C. nitidula was probably the rarest of the twenty-two British species
of the family Chrysididae. It had been taken in New Forest and in Suffolk.
Mr. Smith once took a specimen near Lowestoft, and received one from Loch
Rannoch. It is thus seen to be a very local species, the male especially so, the
specimen Mr. Billups exhibited being the only male recorded as having teen
taken in this country.—Ed.
Lopping and Topping.—In the Lansdowne Manuscript, 165, fol. 233, there
are some observations upon the abuses practised by the tenants of the King's
manors, presented by John Norden, in 1613, to Lord Salisbury. The following
extract is, as the author said, "fitt for honorable consideration," and might read
as a description of parts of Epping Forest ten or twelve years ago:—"The
demisinge of the lopps and tops of trees in forestes, chases, and other mayne
woodes in manors, hath bene the confusion of his Mate moste beautifull woodes in
the kingdom ; and it were verie expedient never to graunt the like, but to resume
them that are; for such hath bene the abuse of such grauntes, that ther is not lefte
in anie woodes thus graunted, a braunch of a tree bigger than a walking staffe."—Ed.
"A Colony of Bats.—When cutting clown an old elm in the last week of June
at Gosfield Hall, an immense number of bats was discovered, collected in the
hollow trunk, in a vast colony. At the dreadful noise and crash of the falling tree,
the poor things presented a mass of struggling, quivering wings and legs, on which
the little mouselike bodies of the young ones were tossed helplessly. Two hun-
dred were easily counted as they rose regretfully into the light and whirled round,
uttering short, sharp and distressed cries. They gradually fluttered off into the
overhanging branches around them, carrying their young ones in their mouths.
In an hour all had entirely disappeared."—"E. Essex and Halstead Times"
(quoted in "Natural History Journal," Dec. 15th, 1886).