The daily morning journal and courier., 1903-08-20
STONE AGE PORTRAITS.

| 1 The Stone races under notice had their habitat in the New : Forest. | There, at all events, MT. Auberton Her | bert, in the course of rambles and in l the course of years, has picked up quite an extensive collection of curies in stone, dating back to the age which de- rives its name from the primitive form of implement associated with that era.
 And it is to MT. Herbert himself that we are indebted for the descriptive
 phrases we have taken the liberty to | adopt. H *
 To the eye of the novice the speci-
 mems displayed, on a green baize table l in a. large upper reception hall of the | hotel, mostly devoted to fashionable weddings, would convey little more idea of speciality than the irregular shapes of stones and fiints which may be picked | up any day on the sea beach or even by
 the roadside. Scarce even a suggestion was there of the flint implements found in the drift" nor of any arrow | head roughly but deftly carved in stone. and sometimes fine enough to
 set as lady's brooch. Yet the exhib- | its were all duly classified. Visitors were even directed which way to go along the table to follow the genealogi- cal sequence. Thus, it may be, one
 group of stones white or brown orired,
 but none massive or large. and all of | irregular size and cratic form, was in
 dicated by Human and Bird" another
 Human and Lion" another Passage,
 Human into Aninlal,'' another Human
 and Animal Mixed,'' High Type Glass;" Human High Type" Full Face" and "Grotesque." Here, indeed,
 was material enough for an expert, not
 to say enthusiast, to dilate upon. While I was pondering upon these things the venerable figure of the col
 lector himself entered the room. Time
 had dealt gently. perhaps, but very evidently, with the robust figure which adorned the House of Commons more than quarter of a century ago. Claiming slight association through that channel, opened a conversation.
 You, Mir Herbert, have picked up these relics in your rambles through the New Forest for some years?'
 These was the reply, "came from the gravel pits. My belief is not con- fined to the New Forest, but is common to the gravel pits in the south of Eng land.' E. ,z- ,..5,.> E .,s.-~ |
 'To what geological period may I ask are these redics believed to beling?"
 "There is a dispute as to when the stone man lived. GeilSie. puts it in the moments between the interglacial peri ods. Lyel puts it after the glacial peril ods" ----
 Taking ''moments'' as a geological ex- pression signifying few score thou sand years, I ventured to observe, in- terrogatively, "These stones do not ap- pear to be implements?"
 ''"They speak for themselves" replied the interrogated, taking up in his hand a piece of stone, white as chalk and in rough crescent form, about three inches across the widest part Tt has the hu- man face, the eyes, and nose and beard,
 with the hair of the head drawn up."
 Done with f1int?"
 ''It is all flint
 Here, indeed, was a new and startling revelation in lithic study. All these stones, each and every one, was sin cerely believed to have been carved
 more or less by human hands in ages so remote that one is staggered to think of it. A hundred thousand years is re-
 garded as a modest computation. It was weird spectacle, and full of weird thoughts, when the venerable ex-
 positor of these speaking stones made each tell it's own tale, so to speak, to a.
 modern English audience in modern
 London drawing room, Showing first how the discoveries were made, MT.