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That is not all, however. In the same brick-earths and gravels, tools (flint implements), fashioned by the hands of man, are also frequently discovered, and in one place at Crayford, the spot whereon flint implements were manufactured has been ’lighted upon. Each flake chipped off has been collected and pieced together, and the shape of the original flint has thus been determined. Clearly, from this evidence, the earth from which millions of bricks have been made has formed since primæval man (and with him the animals alluded to) inhabited the valleys of the Thames and its tributaries. It is interesting, too, to reflect on the circumstance that the materials upon which many of these facts of great philosophical significance are based, have been collected through the instrumentality of the workmen. Palæontologists are proud to acknowledge that; their debt of gratitude to the intelligent and persevering men can never be fully repaid.

Pursuing the matter still further, we discover a quantity of shells, blanched and very frail—they seem to be deprived of much of their original substance, so to speak; their entombment in the brick-earth has taken all the natural colour out of them. Studying these, we soon ascertain that they belong to land snails and mollusca which inhabit fresh water. Living representatives of the same species are, with few exceptions, found in Kent and Essex.