The discovery with which this paper deals was made by me in August, 1908. In the early part of that month, while walking in Upper Dovercourt, I noticed a gravel pit being excavated in a field overlooking the Stour Valley, and thinking it was a likely spot to find river drift implements, I interviewed the workmen, and found that though they knew nothing of humanly-flaked flints, they had noticed and preserved a number of bones, which, however, had unfortunately been sold to a local rag and bone merchant. The occurrence of these bones made me feel confident that flint implements must be associated with them; so I took a representative series of Palæolithic implements for the men to see, and explained to them that it was such things I wanted them to look for. I also took the opportunity of examining the stone heaps in the pit, and was fortunate enough to discover two Moustier-like implements, which, though of no great importance, confirmed me in my opinion as to the implementiferous nature of the gravel bed.

In the second part of our Proceedings, I was able to give an account of various experiments with flints under natural percussion and pressure, and to show wherein the fractures produced by these means differ from those resulting from human blows. This paper, which was an accumulation of concrete facts, was written with a view to dispelling in some measure the atmosphere of uncertainty which for so many years had surrounded the important subject of the greater antiquity of man.

I now propose to supplement, as it were, the results obtained by my experiments by replying to the various objections which have been raised as to the “humanity” of the pre-Palæolithic implements I have discovered, and to show why in my opinion these objections are by no means insurmountable. I intend to confine myself to a defence of the implements found in my own particular district, because after several years' continual study of these specimens, and the beds in which they occur, I feel able to speak with some amount of confidence about them.

The discovery of late Palæolithic relics in East Anglia has aroused the interest of students of prehistoric remains, and the paper by Dr. A. Sturge in Vol. I., Part II., of the Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society of East Anglia may be regarded as the starting-point from which much will be done in the near future.

I have for some time held on theoretical grounds that Late Palæolithic relics should occur in East Anglia, and collected specimens from Wretham Heath in support of that view: it was, therefore, with peculiar interest that I learned of Dr. Sturge's discoveries. I wish to thank Dr. Sturge and the Abbé Breuil for their kindness in examining my specimens, and Mr. W. B. R. King, B.A., of Jesus College, Cambridge, for much help in collecting.