82 THE ESSEX FIELD CLUB.
Zoological Gardens, in which the white head of the winter plumage had entirely
changed to brown-black in five days, the change beginning as early as March 11th.
Mr. Fitch said that the Black-headed Gull used to breed in great numbers on some
parts of the Essex coast. Peewit Island near Walton-on-Naze, and a small
island in the Blackwater Estuary near Bradwell, derived their names from the
abundance of Black-headed Gulls which bred there, "peewit" being the ancient
name for this bird. He had been told that almost all the whole surface of the ground
of the Bradwell "Pewit Island" used to be covered with nests. He had already
projected a paper for the Club on the subject of Essex "Gulleries," and he was
pleased to say that the Black-headed Gull still continued to breed at Tollesbury.
Dr. Laver said that he remembered the time when gulls used to breed at
Bradwell, and he knew of two "Gulleries" in Essex at present, but he refrained
from giving precise localities as the owners did not wish the breeding places to
be generally known.
The Secretary exhibited, on behalf of Mr. H. Stopes, F.G.S., a photograph
of a fossil shell of Pentunculus glycimeris from the Red Crag, Walton-on-Naze,
showing the rude carving of a human face upon it. Mr. Stopes thus alludes to
this specimen in a pamphlet on the "Antiquity of Man" recently issued by him.
We give his remarks without expressing any opinion on a matter which must be
allowed to be enshrouded with considerable doubt:—
"* * * * * Finally we reach a deposit which is so old that it was formed
at the bottom of the North Sea, when it was very much warmer than at present.
This is testified by the character of the shells of which it is chiefly composed, and
by the varied forms of coral that then abounded. It also has myriads of the teeth
of sharks, many of which are bored exactly in the same manner as the South Sea
Islanders do to this day. Mr. Charlesworth first noticed this, and from other
minor indications he came to the conclusion that possibly they were traces of
man. He was, of course, generally laughed at, as such notions twenty years ago
were considered utterly absurd and preposterous. In this deposit, however, the
learned geologist, Prof. Prestwich, whose great repute was worthily earned by
many years' patient investigation of this particular bed, found a sawn bone.
Now a sawn bone implies a man and a saw. He believed this connection an
impossibility, and so for thirty years that bone was kept safely locked up, and
never even mentioned. Then a geological friend of mine found a shell, on which
was rudely engraved a human face. Fearing the consequences to orthodoxy if it were
proved that man really lived when this deposit was formed, he thought it best to
destroy that shell. Luckily he did not. He consulted me, with the result that I
obtained possession of the specimen. It was taken by him from the face of the
Red Crag cliff, at Walton-on-the-Naze, on the Essex coast. This point suffers
from very rapid erosion by sea, and the peculiar formation of the cliff giving
land springs very great destructive power. As a consequence, a fresh face to the
cliff is presented with marked frequency. The species of the shell is Pectunculus
glycimeris, a very common species. I have hundreds of them in my possession.
But a carved shell of that period is not only uncommon, it is unique. It is not
only the oldest work of art known to the world, but it is the oldest trace of man
yet noted, and the first properly registered. Although the "Times," nearly two
years ago (1885) gave to a French anthropoligist the credit of the first discovery
that year of traces of man of nearly similar date in some caves in France, this one
was registered four years previously, as I had read a paper on it at the British
Association meeting at York in 1881. (See Rep. Brit. Assoc, 1881, page 700.)
It is very evident then, that at the time this shell fell into the water, there were
at least two men, one to draw the portrait and one to sit for it. There must also
have been some sharp instrument used to cut the shell. The imitative power,
though not high, shows design. Man could not have been utterly barbarous and
ignorant even then. But this is the earliest light shed on the sands of time."