Page:The Ancient Stone Implements (1897).djvu/638

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616
RIVER-DRIFT IMPLEMENTS.
[CHAP. XXIII.

is shown in Fig. 460.


Fig. 460.—Reculver. 1/2

It is slightly curved in the direction of its length, and has a remarkably thick butt. The original of Fig. 461 is in the Christy Collection, and has been made from a broad flake, which has subsequently been chipped into an oval form. Its surface is much altered in structure, and has become mottled and ochreous. In general character this instrument much resembles the large broad flakes from the gravel at Montiers, near Amiens, but it has been chipped to a more symmetrical outline than that which they usually present. Another, of much the same form, has been found by Mr. Brent, in the gravel at Canterbury. An engraving of another pointed implement from Reculver is given in Once a Week.[1] A few specimens have been found of oval or ovate, and of sub-triangular form, and equally convex on both faces.


Fig. 461.—Reculver. 1/2

Thanks to Mr. F. Rutley, F.G.S., I have a small ochreous oval implement, which he found on the shore 11/2 miles west of Reculver.

Though the implements are usually found on the sea-shore at the foot of the cliff, there can be no doubt of their being derived from the gravels at its summit. They are generally somewhat worn by the action of the waves, but occasionally they have preserved their edges quite sharp, and their angles unabraded, so that they could not have been many days upon the shore, and must have been quite recently derived from the cliff. I have, indeed, been informed by a coastguard-man that in
  1. Vol. iii. p. 501.