114 Primaeval Man in the Valley of the Lea.
unabraded tools and flakes; in the part illustrated the
"floor" is in duplicate. After the men had made their tools
on the "floor" where the lower d's occur, a slight flood of
water covered up the tools with a thin coating of sand; the
men then walked over the newly-deposited material, and
made other tools on the new "floor." The two white streaks
on the top of the upper "floor" are London-clay mixed with
sand. Sometimes the tools and flakes are to be seen in this
clay, but of course they were washed into it in Palaeolithic
times by floods. Above the "floor" is sandy loam and
loamy sand; the uppermost part, and sometimes the whole
of the material above the "floor," is not water-laid; in other
words, it is one form of "trail" and "warp"; above this
"trail," and where the darker tint is engraved, is humus,
with Neolithic celts and flakes.
When the material above the "floor" is carefully removed,
as I have so had it removed for me several times, the surface
of the old working-place is exposed. The stones are chiefly
subangular broken flints, under the average size, the crust
sometimes ochreous, at other times grey, quartzite pebbles,
pieces of sandstone, a few pieces of quartz, cretaceous fossils,
and numerous small grey flint pebbles, with traces of chalk.
Intermixed with these stones are large numbers of keen
lustrous flakes and many implements, all sharp, and as a
rule (not without exceptions) small in size and well made,
some so exquisitely made as to rival the best Neolithic work.
With these tools, fossil bones, mostly broken, belonging to
the Mammoth, Horse, Bison, and Reindeer, occur with
broken tusks, teeth, and antlers of the same and other
animals ; human bones and teeth I have never been able to
light on. The reasons why human bones are not found
amongst the fossils are many, and they have been pointed out
by every writer who has treated of the subject of the antiquity
of man. Human bones are very liable to decay; few bones so
small as human bones are ever found. Primaeval men may have
buried their dead, but if the bodies were left unburied, hyaenas
and other animals would eat every scrap. Still the human
pelvis bones are large, and heavy enough for preservation;