present time we have only about twenty-one examples of the domestic gateway left in the two counties-that is, sixteen in Lancashire and five in Cheshire. But I think the turning-point has come, and that owners and occupiers are displaying much greater interest in these monuments of a day that is dead, and I can only trust that they will receive in the future that care and attention they deserve, instead of being allowed to tumble to pieces and the historical associations connected with them be swept out of memory. If by the influence of our Society we can arouse an interest in these memorials of past architectural composition and be the means of helping to preserve these often unheeded heritages that were built in an age of strength and great achievements and still stand on national records, we shall have done a great deal towards preserving from vandalism, injudicious restoration, and perhaps destruction, these monuments of mediæval art and the laborious workmanship of a bygone day, and assist in passing on to future generations these inventions for the defence of men in past social life-the Gatehouses and Gateways of Lancashire and Cheshire.

ON SOME FLINT IMPLEMENTS FOUND

IN THE GLACIAL DEPOSITS

OF CHESHIRE AND NORTH WALES.

By Joseph Lomas, A.R.C.S., F.G.S.

Read before the Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire, the Liverpool Geological Society, and the Liverpool Biological Society,

at University College, 9th December, 1898.

SIR

IR John Evans, in his presidential address to the British Association, at Toronto, in 1897, clearly indicates the lines along which workers in different branches of science may contribute towards the solution of problems connected with early man. He says: "The evidence that man had already appeared upon the earth is afforded by stone implements wrought by his hands, and it falls strictly within the province of the archæologist to judge whether given specimens were so wrought or not; it rests with the geologist to determine their stratigraphical or chronological position; while the palæontologist can pronounce upon the age and character of the associated fauna and flora.

"If left to himself, the archæologist seems too prone to build up theories founded upon form alone, irrespective of geological conditions. The geologist, unaccustomed to archæological details, may readily

fail to see the difference between the operations of nature and those of art, and may be liable to trace the effect of man's handiwork in the chipping, bruising, and wearing which, in all ages, result from natural forces; but the united labours of the two, checked by those of the palæontologist, cannot do otherwise than lead towards sound conclusions."

Hence this meeting, constituted of archæologists, geologists, and biologists, seems admirably fitted to discuss and decide upon the question before us to-night.

No doubt man, in the first instance, would use naturally shaped stones as his weapons; then, finding some of these specially useful, he ultimately learnt to shape rough stones to suit his needs.

Thus the earliest implements would be very rude, and show few, if any, undoubted signs of human workmanship. It would not be till later times, when he had progressed in the arts, that forms would be produced delicately and symmetrically worked.

The curious fact has often been noted that palæolithic implements in Britain have a very restricted distribution. A line drawn from the mouth of the Severn to the Wash roughly divides the palæolith-bearing country to the south from the country to the north, where only implements of later age are found. This line also serves to separate the part of Britain covered by ice in the glacial period, from that which was unglaciated. It has been suggested that these phenomena are related to each other as cause and effect, and that the evidence of paleolithic man in the north was destroyed when the ice from the mountains of Cumberland and South Scotland spread towards the Midlands. Some parts of Yorkshire, protected by the Pennine Chain, escaped glaciation, and a

careful search in such areas might be fruitful in evidence, either for or against the theory.

Palæoliths have been described from Bridlington in Yorkshire, and from the old river gravels of the River Rea at Saltley, Warwickshire.' It thus becomes highly desirable that the northern part of Britain should be more carefully investigated, with a view to finding traces of early man.

If man really did exist in North Britain in pre-glacial times, we should naturally expect to find. evidences of his work in glacial deposits themselves. It seems almost a hopeless task to examine the stones contained in mingled confusion in the boulder clays and sands, and expect to find worked implements. In the very nature of things they would be of the rudest description, and we hardly dare to hope that remains of contemporaneous fauna and flora would be preserved. Form alone is left as the only touchstone we can employ, and the greatest caution is desirable in discriminating between the conscious shaping by man and the blind effects of Nature.

Flints are decidedly rare in our local glacial deposits. When found, they are mostly contained along with other erratics, in the sands and gravels of glacial age, but they may occasionally be met with in boulder clay.

Many such patches of sand and gravel occur in Cheshire and North Wales. The flints exhibited and described are from these deposits.

Sir John Evans, K.C.B., F.R.S., Dr. Henry Hicks, F.R.S., and Mr. W. J. Lewis-Abbott, F.G.S., have kindly examined some of the flints collected from Prenton, Spital, and Moel Tryfaen.

Regarding No. 7, Sir John Evans remarks: "No. 7 may be artificial. Of the others, Nos. 2 and 3 look the most possible; but the signs are

1 Evans' Ancient Stone Implements, second edition, pp. 578 and 581.

K

not such as can confidently be relied on. If man existed in pre-glacial times in Britain, it is, I think, probable that his tools would have been of larger proportions."

Mr. W. J. Lewis-Abbott has not only furnished me with an exhaustive report on the specimens. submitted to him, but he has very kindly sent a series of implements from his own collection, and that of Mr. B. Harrison, of Igtham, for comparison. with the flints found in our glacial deposits. The report I am tempted to give in full, as regards specimens Nos. 1, 3, 2, and 7.

REPORT BY MR. W. J. LEWIS-ABBOTT, F.G.S.

"No. 1.-This is a small frost-split pebble; the flat side is a natural frost fracture, but antedates the removals from the other side. The latter was originally the outside of the pebble, the natural crust of which remains on all parts except where it has been removed by chipping. The top left edge has been flaked, probably by pressure such as would result from using a flint for the purpose of scraping a very hard substance. The shape of the scraping edge in relation to the crusted outline, would suggest that it (the straight incurved scraping edge) was shaped by flaking before being used as a scraper. It shows a different pattern of surface from the contused edges caused by heavy weights passing over a fixed flint; at the same time it is not free struck flaking such as we see on the other side of the flint, such as usually characterises man's bold work, and possibly the top left edge may have been used as a scraper. I can produce similar scraping edges from neolithic positions out of the way of glacial or river agency, which no one would doubt as being man's work.

"No. 3 is also a frost-split pebble; about twothirds of the edge has been chipped from the flat side, in a way that man has done it throughout the