102
VI.
Primaeval Man in the Valley of thr Lea.1
By Worthington G. Smith, F.L.S., M.A.I., &C.
[Read April 29th, 1882; revised April, 1883.]
Avus Implementorvm omnivm Palaeolithicorvm, qvae svnt a me reperta in Valle
Thamesis, apvd Mvsaevm Britannicvm deversatvr,—"CCXLVI. Conyers."
By Primaeval Man I mean Man of whom we have the
earliest authentic and accepted evidence. I do not refer to
the very early inhabitants of Britain commonly known as the
Silurian or Neolithic tribes, or to the Kelts, but to that
great cohort of men who once lived near ancient river-sides,
and there left their chipped unpolished weapons and tools of
flint, chert, felstone, quartz, quartzite, porphyry, and various
other stones. No doubt, as I think, these river-side men were
preceded for vast periods of time—though possibly not where
England now is—by other men or men-like animals, and
these, our (at present unknown) remote precursors, might
perhaps more properly be termed primaeval men. The
evidence, however, of the existence of such early tribes (even
if any evidence has at present been discovered) is, to me, of
a slight and uncertain nature. I prefer therefore to consider
that little or nothing is known of primaeval man prior to the
deposition of the beds of gravel, sand, and loam generally
found as terraces bordering our present rivers or their
affluents. These gravelly, implementiferous positions are
chiefly confined to the rivers of North-Western Europe,
although stone weapons of apparently vast antiquity have
now been found in drift beds generally bordering the rivers of
all four quarters of the globe.
1 [We are greatly indebted to Mr. Worthington G. Smith for the
numerous woodcuts illustrating this paper, drawn and engraved by him-
self. Since the reading of the essay it has been carefully revised and
brought up to date by the author.—Ed.]