Primaeval Man in the Valley of the Lea. 121
It commonly happens that the higher the gravels above
the present rivers the older they are, but here we have an
instance where the newer gravels and more recent implements
are from 8 to 26 ft. higher than the old.
Having noticed the material in which the stone implements
of the Lea are found, I will now describe the tools themselves.
I need not discuss the question as to whether they are of
human origin or not; I agree with Prof. Hughes, of Cam-
bridge, who said before the Victoria Institute that he would
not waste time to discuss the point. To me they are as
certainly of human origin as is the Parthenon at Athens
or the cartoons of Raphael. The implements owe their
formation to thinking heads, to true eyes, and to uncommonly
skilful fingers. Flint implements from the drift have some-
times been described as rude, naturally-broken blocks of
stone ; but the fact really is, many of the weapons and tools
are so beautifully and finely made that it is only safe to move
them from place to place with the most careful packing, to
protect them from injury. Many of the oval, ovate, and
tongue-shaped forms are almost mathematically true in
outline.
After a somewhat long and very painstaking experience of
the flint implements of the Lea Valley, I can, as I think,
distinctly refer them to three different ages, all three far
distant from each other. As the implements are thrown out of
the pits with the ballast, we sometimes find the massive club-
shaped implements, rudely made, with heavy butts, greatly
abraded, and deeply ochreous. They are rare in the Lea
Valley, and I am inclined to consider these as the most
ancient implements yet known. They have not acquired
their ochreous colour in the Lea-gravel, and they are far
more water-worn than the typical Lea implements; they
form the first and oldest class, and I consider them as
"derived" (as geologists say), and not innate with the gravel
in which they are now found. They differ in the same way
from the "Palaeolithic Floor" implements as do fossil
shells from the chalk, as compared with the more recent
Molluscan remains of Palaeolithic gravels. Implements of