Highly as I feel the honour of having been asked to occupy this Presidential chair, I accepted that honour with some diffidence, for I recognise that my studies in Pre-history.have not been carried very far. As, however, these studies have convinced me that the application of geology to prehistoric problems is even yet fraught with many difficulties, it appears to me desirable in this address to call special attention to some of these difficulties.

Having devoted nearly half a century to geological researches of various kinds, I can state with confidence that those geological problems with which we are concerned are among the most difficult with which the geologist is confronted, and their investigation cannot be lightly undertaken.

At present, what we above all require is the collection of facts, and I therefore hailed with pleasure the foundation of this Society, and congratulate its members upon the amount of valuable work which they have already performed. Among these members the name of Dr. Allen Sturge stands out pre-eminent. He may be regarded as the Father of the Society, and all members must deeply deplore the loss which the Society has sustained by his death.

In a former paper (Proceedings, Vol. II., Pt. IV.), a description was given of some lumps and cores from Windmill Hill, Avebury, with a few comparisons from Grime's Graves, Norfolk. Among the cores, the tortoise variety, both ideal and in its modified forms, is abundantly in evidence. Fig. 27 comes under the former category, and was, perhaps, also held in the fingers for use as a chopper. The facet whence the desired flake was taken is evident enough.

Fig. 28 is a thick and coarser variety, and is commoner. It, has a useful flake removed (left-hand figure), and an obtuse edge, capable of use. Allied to the last-named is the cube type, represented by Fig. 29. Sometines, as in Fig. 30, the flake was taken off the more convex face. In this instance it was one of the small leaf-shaped and sub-triangular kind so common on Windmill Hill, also produced in larger size and numerously at Avebury Down and Grime's Graves.

I discovered my first flint implement, a very fine Neolithic axe, in Gresham, in the year 1883, and this find led me to investigate the neighbourhood for other specimens. I was successful in finding many Neolithic implements of various kinds, which have from time to time been exhibited at the meetings of the Prehistoric Society of East Anglia.

Shortly after my first finds, I commenced searching the gravels in the parish for “river drift” implements, but with very little success, as I soon found out that the gravel was of glacial origin, and the sandy surface of most of the district around was also glacial.

The high ground to the north of Gresham consists of what is now fairly well known as the “Cromer-Holt ridge,” and is considered by Mr. F. W. Harmer, F.G.S., to be the terminal moraine of the North Sea ice sheet, built up while the glacier remained stationary for a long period, on its northward retreat. The numerous small valleys were formed by waters from the melting ice while the glacier was in its stationary stage, and may also have been influenced by the later glacier which deposited the chalky boulder clay.

At the eastern foot of Bromehill, where the prehistoric trackway known as the “Drove” (antea Vol. I., pp. 427–434) passes from Weeting to Santon, it approaches within yards of the river Little Ouse, and cuts at right angles through a series of six earthen banks, which come from the southern end of the Grime's Graves plantation, and originally ran to the edge of the marshland, until their ends were removed in making the railway. From west to east the distances between these banks are 7, 3, 3, 9, and 82 yards, and they are now about 2 feet in height and 6 feet in width, though much broken by rabbits. The penultimate bank towards the east is the boundary between the parishes of Weeting and Santon.

East of these banks and south of the “Drove” is “Santon Breck,” part of which was ploughed in 1907, but most of which is primitive heath. Here, in September, 1908, I found many Roman potsherds, including Castor and Upchurch ware. (See Norf. Antiq. Miscellany, 2nd Series, Pt. 3, p. 98). Similar pottery fragments are found on the surface over an extensive area.

These implements and flakes were collected during the past two years from the ploughed fields of Beer Head and the immediate vicinity.

The white cliffs at Beer Head, S.E. Devon, are the last of the Chalk Cliffs to westward on the South Coast, but cretaceous beds appear inland further west at Haldon and Bovey Tracy.

The cliff section shows greensand at the base, and chalk, with a thin capping of “clay with flints and chert,” above.

The highest point of the Head is 475 ft. O.D. Early in last century gun-flints were made on this site. Occasional flakes from this factory are met with and are easily distinguished by their dull surface. The fields in which the implements were found are near the coastguard station, and from about 200 to 600 yards from the cliffs.

The account given by Mr. Burroughs in 1880 of the discovery of the Sutton shield is illustrated by a rather inferior drawing, and is somewhat misleading in some respects. It seems to me, therefore, advisable that a photograph of the shield should be published and the facts of its discovery placed on record. I am greatly indebted to Dr. Francis Clowes, the present owner of the shield, for the following information and for the photographs (Plate XVIII.) which are here reproduced with his permission. Dr. Clowes was with Mr. Burroughs when he visited the place where the shield was found, so that the facts given here may be accepted as correct.

The discovery was made on June 7th, 1875, by two men digging a main drain to the mill which stands at the edge of the “Hand Marsh” south-east of Sutton Broad, but I am unable to say exactly which is the drain in question. The shield was found beneath about 7 feet of peat, lying on, and partly covered by, bright white sand, while in its vicinity were pieces of oak three or four feet long, much charred by fire.

Some seventy years ago, when the tunnel was cut through the Stoke Hills at Ipswich, animal remains were found at a short distance from the London end of it, on a level with the line. These were examined by Professor Prestwich, and though the collection was scattered, a certain number of the bones and teeth of mammals found their way to the Ipswich Museum, where they may still be seen.

In 1908 it struck me that it might be possible to open up some of the sections which were then exposed, and to locate the deposits from which the remains had been taken. This was successfully done, but for fear of the bank above slipping, permission could only be obtained to open a very small portion of the side of the cutting. The researches, however, proved that a varied assortment of animals of the Pleistocene period had either perished on the spot or had been brought down by flood to this position.

When visiting Mundesley, in Norfolk, in September, 1916, the present author found upon the shore, in close proximity to an exposure of clay which he now considers to be referable to the Cromer Forest Bed Series, a very finely-made and large flint flake, of human manufacture. This discovery induced him to again visit Mundesley, and during this year (1919) close upon three weeks have been spent in an examination of the stretch of cliffs and shore lying between Trimingham, to the north-west of Mundesley, and Bacton, which lies to the south-east.

The author's researches have been greatly helped by the co-operation of three friends, Professor A. S. Barnes, Mr. Walter B. Nichols, and the Hon. Robert Gathorne-Hardy, who accompanied him to Mundesley, and to whom he offers his warmest thanks. He would, however, wish to make it clear that these gentlemen are in no way responsible for the statements made in this paper. For these the author is solely responsible.

This floor, No. 46, was situated in the open field close to the North border of the plantation, about 50 yards N.E. of Pit 1. Excavations carried out by Mrs. Richardson and myself revealed the presence of a filled-in pit, of which there was no surface indication, the field having been levelled down for cultivation. The hole dug measured about 11 ft. each way, with a maximum depth of 5 ft. At the bottom on one side was a great tip of hard tabular chalk blocks, shot in from the N.E.; on the other side was a tip of sand shot in from the S.W.; and in the V-shaped depression between these two was a mass of flints without any matrix, most of them of great size, the majority covered with a fungus-like coating of carbonate of lime redeposited from solution. This layer reached a thickness of 3½ ft. in one part, thinning out gradually towards the E. side, where it was only a few inches thick. It was almost entirely sealed in by a small tip of chalk blocks and rubble shot in from the N.E., overlain in its turn by a thin layer of flints, which in one or two places rested directly on the main flint layer.

Section II. of Mr. Haward's paper deals with the characteristics of the fracture and chipping of flint by man and Nature. This section contains so many statements which are incorrect that in the interests of accuracy they cannot be allowed to pass without correction.

The author defines percussion in the following terms:—“Sharp, hammer-like rebounding blows impinged (sic) on a flat surface or edge held by a resilient support.” If by this definition Mr. Haward intends to convey the impression that in order to flake flint by percussion it is necessary to comply with the conditions he has specified, he is mistaken. It is quite easy, for example, to produce bulbed flakes by percussion under conditions quite different to those set out by Mr. Haward, e.g. by means of a “follow-through” blow on the concave surface of a flint rigidly supported.

The remarkable specimen which forms the subject of this communication was presented to me by Mr. Reid Moir, who had extracted it with his own hands from the base of the Red Crag exposed in Messrs. Bolton & Laughlin's brick field, near Ipswich.

It is a fragment of a nodule of chalk flint, irregularly rhombic in outline, with nearly flat base and a rounded upper surface which slopes away on each side from a medium line (the shorter diameter) joining the two obtuse angles of the rhomb.

The upper rounded side formed part of the original surface of the nodule and retains the whitish weathered crust, 8 mm. or more in thickness, which was formed while the nodule lay embedded in the chalk. The exterior of this crust has since been traversed by solutions which have deposited in its pores some silica and ferric hydrate, thus forming a brown superficial layer which is now too hard to be scratched with a knife.

The following paper describes a number of celts that were found lying on the surface in several parts of North Kent and in Dorset.

They seldom occurred alone, but among numerous implements of other forms, in situations that suggest occupation sites of early peoples. During parts of several successive years the author examined the surface features of the Chalk Downs, and the contiguous belt of country to the north, formed by the Tertiary Beds, that lies between the valley of the Mole and that of the Medway. This work formed part of the official survey of the area, but during the examination the occurrence of any flint-implements was carefully recorded and the precise location given. It soon became obvious that the distribution of the implements was by no means general over the surface, but definitely restricted to certain sites where they were abundant, with wide intervening tracts almost destitute of them. This fact was so remarkable that the question arose, naturally, if the sites had been chosen deliberately by early man, and, if so, what reasons had led to this selection.

The particular area dealt with in this paper is the extreme S.W. corner of the County, embracing roughly a triangle having its base of 14 miles along the high moors W. of Sheffield, viz., from Langsett (N.) to Fox House (S.), the apex at Mexboro', and the ridges on the right of the Don Valley forming one side.

From its varied character, including as it does the extremes of bleak upland impossible of cultivation, and sheltered valley and lowland, it is in many respects an ideal area for study.

Unfortunately, flint, for reasons explained later, is scarce, hence it is only by the cumulative results of patient search extending over a period of years that any conclusion can be arrived at touching the culture of the implements found.

The base-line of the area under consideration follows in general the Yorkshire–Derbyshire boundary, and traverses a wide moorland country of considerable altitude, consisting of glacier-sculptured heights, seamed with deep, frequently precipitous ravines.

By the very kind permission of the owners, I was enabled to carry out the excavation of some “floors” at Grime's Graves, in June and July, 1919, with some friends.

At the same time Mr. D. Richardson was clearing the remarkable site which he discovered in the North Field.

The centre of Floor 52 was fifty paces N.E. of the corner of the West Field, and fourteen from the edge of the cart track north of the wood. Twenty yards N.W. of the said centre was Floor 47, nearer to the cart track coming up out of the valley, and with comparatively small flakes and cores, of poor quality. The facets are short, deep, and wide, like those on an implement of the Chelles Period. The shapes of the cores differ from the true Grime's Graves type. At Floor 51 Mr. W. G. Clarke rightly pointed out that these traits were, in part, due to the fact that wall-stone was used. Only in part, however, for floor-stone was also used, as examination showed. The chipped flints in the outer part of Floor 47 lay in the lower part of the humus, 9 ins. below the surface.

The burin is one of the commonest stone tools found in the French Cave deposits of Upper Palæolithic Age. It also occurs in England, as at Paviland, etc., though, on the whole, its occurrence in this country seems to be rarer than in France.

A classification of the various types of burin has been attempted already some years ago by the late M. Bourlon, who was a captain in the French Army, and the following note is to a very large extent founded on his work. A slight simplification has been introduced, however.

Burins or gravers (though they probably had many uses besides that of engraving) can be readily divided into two main groups:—

A. Those with a straight working edge, like that of a screwdriver.

This makes a V-shaped gutter when rubbed along a surface.

B. Those with a convex, gouge-like working edge.

This makes a U-shaped gutter when similarly used.

It has been my privilege to work under Prof. Man at Cambridge, and discuss with him the problems of the relation between Quaternary Man and the Ice Age. His ideas have been ably expressed in the Presidential Address that he gave to the Society. One point, however, it seemed to me was rather passed over lightly, and that is the correlation of the results obtained in England with those found abroad. Dr. Marr suggested in his paper that the time was not yet ripe for such a correlation, and that it was as yet dangerous. Yet the results obtained by Prof. Marr and Mr. Moir are so definite and far-reaching that the writer feels that an attempted correlation is necessary to avoid the danger of a too great insularity of thought. The results obtained abroad may be grouped under two heads;—

(1) Those showing positive results

(2) Those showing negative results

Abroad, and especially in France, not only have there been a number of gifted amateurs engaged in the study of prehistory, but further, owing to the generosity of the Prince of Monaco, there have been a number of distinguished specialists who have been devoting their whole energies to the elucidation of various problems.