Primaeval Man in the Valley of the Lea. 139
boxes, and probably no cupboards or pockets, so they were
obliged to put them on the ground, but this was not throwing
them away. When the implements were once put on the
ground it no doubt often happened that the owners could not
find them again, and so they were forced to make new ones.
I have not the slightest doubt that I have often picked im-
plements off the "Palaeolithic Floor" from the very spot
where they were originally laid down by their makers.
I find implements wherever the Lea-gravel is dug, some-
times in the gravel-pits, sometimes on the heaps of ballast
outside the pits, but more frequently in newly-gravelled roads.
It requires a sharp and experienced eye to find even Palae-
olithic implements. A good time for an excursion is after
heavy rains, when the stones are clean, for in dry summer
weather the stones are often so thickly smeared with tenacious
clay that it is no easy matter to recognise an implement.
Again, when the implements are in the roads they are not
always fully exposed to view, inviting the passer-by to pick
them up ; they are generally so involved with the other
stones that only part of a butt-end or side, or possibly a
point, is visible; and as all these parts sometimes show a
considerable amount of natural bark, to say nothing of dirt,
it follows that the seeker after Palaeolithic implements should
be perfectly familiar with all the forms. In Palaeolithic
localities flakes are a hundred times more common than
perfect implements, therefore these objects are the more
likely to be met with ; in new positions I always keep a keen
outlook for flakes, and if I light on one flake it is a certain
proof to me that implements will be found after sufficient
searching.
Before I leave the subject of the implements and say a few
concluding words regarding the men who made them, I will
quote the remark of Sir John Lubbock, who says the imple-
ments "speak for themselves." They do indeed speak, and
with au unerring voice to those who hear aright. There is not
a single implement or flake, but can tell us something of
itself, its use, or its maker. What a tale the large implement
tells, broken as it was in Palaeolithic times, and mended only