The curiously-carved flint unearthed by Mr, Clement Edwards from a gravel pit on Mr. C. A. Vandervell's estate near Pang-bourne may already supplement considerably that, fascinating Chapter of Mr. Well's new History. Certainly the manner of its di covery, as related by Mr, Edwards to an "Observer" representative, who was shown the relic at his residence in Pimlico, is as interesting as the chapter itself.
don't know much about geology, he explained. "Natural history is my hobby, and if you were to ask me something about birds, now——. However, it was the work of the new tractor ploughs on Mr. Vandervell's estate which real led up to the discovery. These have been stirring up three or four inches of subsoil which has not been touch. ed for ages, and besides bringing up a fine crop of charlock they also unearthed a number of flint arrow heads.
"It was these that first excited my curiosity. While Mr, Vandervell and his agent were talking business over a gravel put in the bankside of a stream there, I poked about among the virgin "surface of the gravel, unearthed the relic you see there, and had it thoroughly cleaned, ' The spot it came from was, I should think, about 12 ft. below the surface soil and 40 to 50 ft. above the level of the stream.
The expert at the British Museum to whom I showed it tells me it may easily prove to be about 40,000 years old, and the best flint of its kind yet discovered. At his suggestion I am submitting it to the Prehistoric Society when it meets in the spring."
The flint itself is dumbbell-shaped and somewhat bigger than an extra large potato. Every nodule on and there appeared to ko at lo a dozen of these—had been crudely worked to represent an animal's or reptile's head, and distinct incisions made for mouth and eyes. To an expert eye, at least, the deli-carvings were unmistakable, the eyes particularly showing up sharply and clearly cut in exch head. Mr. Edwards framed with a hand. kerchief each head in turn 5 there seemed to be no limit to the number of nightmare faces this hydraheaded monster could display. One might be said to suggest a crocodile, another a horse, another a reindeer, and so on through all that grotesque creation which survives in Mr, Horrabin's Stong-Age diagrams' and haunts our-dreams at nights. ~Ze could sym pathize with.tie new obsession which had induced Mr. Edwards io confess that archaeology was infinitely more interesting than politics.
The British Museum expert who had examined the relic explained that it was undoubtedly, in his judgement, an Animistic flint, and
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.