The stone ages in North Britain and Ireland / by the Rev. Frederick Smith ; with an introduction by Augustus H. Keane.
- Smith, Frederick, Rev.
- Date:
- 1909
Licence: In copyright
Credit: The stone ages in North Britain and Ireland / by the Rev. Frederick Smith ; with an introduction by Augustus H. Keane. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![Mr. Cross’s collection is yet not only interesting, but is valuable as shoAving that the gravels do contain many as yet unrecognised and unaccepted forms. IMr. Cross, at my request, visited my collection, and Avhile he insisted that many of my specimens Avere unmounted tomahaAvks, I gleaned that he, like the noAV passing-aAvay “ collectors,” is in the hands of the naA’’A’’3’, Avho, haA'ing been instructed Avhat to look for, sees and finds nothing else. If he (the gravel-digger) Avere shoAvn a specimen or specimens Avhich Avould make excellent tomahaAvks, in the course of time he Avould hand over a collection of corresponding specimens, Avhile a hundred other equally interesting forms had no place in the repre- sentative elaborations of that ancient man. I repeat Avhat I have probably already said, viz. that the history of Palneolithic man Avill never in an exhaustive sense be culled till the navvy ceases to be the selector and judge of Avhat is and Avhat is not a relic.. ]\Ir. Cross’s finds AA^ere made in a great cutting 100 feet O.D. at Milton Street, Kent. He has certainly added much to the vicAV of Avhat Avas and AA^as not a fabrication. I have paid several visits to his collection in Edinburgh, and ahvays found much to deeply interest me. Scientists should certainly consider themselves indebted to Mr. Cross for his courage and his Avork. NOTE VI Further Evidence from South Africa I Avas on the point of, as a last note to this volume, recording the fact of my son, C. Coates Smith, having in 1901 sent me from near Kimberley (South Africa) a beautiful almond-shaped hache, of excellent Avorkmanship, Avhich, as he put it, he picked out of surface sandy graA^el. It Avas about 5 inches in length, of refined form and aspect, Avhich I greatly treasured, but Avhich nevertheless mysteriously—in 1905—disappeared from my collection. I AAvas on the point of noting and expatiating upon that specimen Avhen there reached me a most interesting and important contribution to the history of ancient man, no other than The Stone Implements of South Africa (2nd ed. 1908), Avith “ The Compliments of the Author,” Mr. J. B. Johnson, Johannesburg. ’ I have, as time is exceedingl}^ brief even for these last notes for The Stone Ages, raced through Mr. Johnson’s volume, in Avhich there stand out prominently several features of great moment in Avhat Ave may style the modern method of approach to that ancient man’s record. There IS no bolstering np of Availing assertions and opinions, no “ arm-chair ” Avork, no depending upon Avhat can be collected by others, but personal Avork in the field, Avitli direct observation as to the “ occurrence ” of](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b24885691_0399.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
