Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 6 (1902).djvu/392

332 Dr. Noetling might easily have picked his up just underneath one of these. The edge of the ravine, though sometimes nearly perpendicular, does not overhang, and, with a ledge of conglomerate such as Dr. Noetling figures, it is certain that stones, dropping over as the edge wears away, might be caught on it. We were unable to look about on the plateau for further groups of chips, as we had to leave Yenangyoung the next day, and thought it only right to spend the rest of our fourth day in a further careful examination of the ferruginous conglomerate in the vicinity—but, as usual, without result.

Besides dividing the flints into irregular lumps and flakes, they can be grouped according to the original stones from which they came. In some instances this can be done with certainty, as, for instance, one stone was a peculiar flint brecchia, of which we found three pieces; while in very many instances the likeness in colour between several pieces, even down to small peculiarities—such as pink spots or white streaks in the stone—is such that no reasonable doubt can be felt that they come, not only from the same stone, but from the same part of it. In two instances I have been able to fit pieces together, proving definitely that they were broken in situ, and in many other instances it is doubtful whether pieces do not fit. These facts seem to me to be against such extreme antiquity as is claimed for these flints by Dr. Noetling, and especially against the theory that they were once embedded in a stratum of rock or earth, and have been left lying on the surface by the wearing away of the stratum. To believe this one would have to believe that they were originally chipped up in Pliocene times, were subsequently covered up by sand to a great depth, the beds were then raised into a dome by pressure, and finally the pieces of stone were again exposed on the surface by denudation without any disturbance of their original relative positions!

But if the flints are not associated with the conglomerate, what are they? I would prefer that this question should be answered by those more competent to give an opinion, but Mr. LaTouche thinks they must be of considerable age, owing to the glaze on them, and suggests that they are palæolithic. On breaking two pieces, they were found to be light-coloured throughout, and not of the dull black colour characteristic of true flint;