Primaeval Man in the Valley of the Lea. 129
of Mr. John Evans). Other characteristic specimens are
illustrated at figs. 16 and 17. Fig. 16 is a thin and
exquisitely manipulated trimmed-flake (No. 47 in my col-
lection), weighing only 13/10 ounces. Fig. 17 is an implement
worked on both sides, the natural crust of the flint being
left untouched on the butt, weight 11/6 ounces (No. 627 in
my collection). Oval implements with a cutting edge all
round now appear; a few examples, as in the last period,
occur where the broad end (as in Neolithic celts) appears to
have been designed for cutting or chiselling; scrapers are
common, not large and rough, but as a rule small and
extremely neat. One is illustrated at fig. 18, half actual size
(scraper No. 22 in my collection); small knives, i. e., flakes,
with the edge or edges showing very neat secondary trimming,
are common, and hardly to be distinguished from Neolithic
"knives." As a rule every object is now neat, small, and
fine.
That these later implements are of a different age from the
last is proved by the curious fact that the newer implements
are sometimes re-made from older ones, i. e., re-trimmed after
the lapse of a vast period of time. I have several such ex-
amples, one a scraper belonging to the "Palaeolithic Floor":
it is made from an old lustrous flake of medium age, all the
more recent work being dull and sharp.
The different surfaces— viz., 1, ochreous, and greatly
abraded; 2, lustrous and subabraded; and 3, dull and per-
fectly sharp—point to three periods greatly removed from
each other in the Palaeolithic age. In some places, as in the
loam of Canterbury, the more recent Palaeolithic implements
are white, but when broken the inner substance is dark grey;
the white colour is a bark of decomposition, and this white
bark or crust has been acquired since the most recent
Palaeolithic times. Now Neolithic flints at Canterbury
remain blackish grey to the present day; the thousands of
years (say from two to ten) since they were chipped have
been insufficient to cause even the thinnest conceivable white
film of decomposition to appear, but a Palaeolithic example
from the same place and near the ground surface has acquired
K