EVIDENCES OF PREHISTORIC MAN IN WEST KENT. 335
these interesting flints—a circumstance owing probably to their
insignificance both in numbers and appearance. It is possible
to call them Eoliths of late type—an intermediate position
suggested by a large number bearing evidence of extreme
climatic conditions in their rubbed and striated surfaces.
Without placing too much reliance on the occurrence of these
scratches, it may well be argued that the large proportion of
implements so marked will agree with their suggested inter-
glacial age. The implements, as you will see, are but slightly
rolled, the points and edges being comparatively fresh. Their
flat surfaces, however, are abundantly striated, and in one
instance, whilst the sinuous edge remains perfectly fresh, the
flat surfaces are not only much scratched, but literally ground
away. The fact therefore that these portions of the implements
usually attacked in running water remain unaltered, whilst the
flat surfaces bear evidence of rough treatment seems to call for
some less mobile transporting agent than running water. I do
not for one moment suggest that we have here evidence of
ice action in its Continental sense, but that these implements
received their scratches owing to their transport on masses of
frozen material floating down stream, accumulating on1 flood
plains and grinding each other in the processes of accumulation
and dispersal. It may perhaps be well to examine the conditions
under which these striated flints occur; the diagram at Fig. 1
shows the patch of gravel in which they occur situated between
450 and 470 feet O.D. A careful examination of its composition
shows a remarkable collection of materials. It may be tabulated
thus:—
1. Green-coated flints from base of Thanet Sand.
2. Fragments of ironstone.
3. Scratched flints, already alluded to (worked and unworked).
4. Palaeolithic flakes and implements, quite unrolled.
5. Neolithic flakes in great abundance.
6. Large unrolled flints from the chalk.
7. Chert.
8. Quartzite.
9. Oldbury stone (red variety).
The greater number of the constituents above mentioned are
of southern origin, and may therefore be regarded as a southern
drift, brought down by the Darent when that river ran some 300
feet above its present level. That the material is later than the