The Geological Evidence of The Antiquity of Man

e of the Valley of

nding

lluvium of di

ear Ab

and vegetab

f Art i

y of the Peat, an

ts Grow

of antique Type i

s Forms and

RUCTURE OF TH

very direction by loam or brick-earth (Number 4), about 5 feet thick, devoid of fossils. To the wide extent of this loam the soil of Picardy chiefly owes its great fertility. Here and there we also observe, on the Chalk, outlying patches of Tertiary sand and clay (Number 5, Figure 7), with Eocene fossils, the remnants of a formation once more extensive, and which probably once spread in one continuous mass over the Chalk, before the present system of valleys had begun to be shaped out. It is necessary to allude to these relics of Tertiary strata, of which the larger part is missing, because their denudation has contributed l

ould be necessary to make the space between c and b four times as great. The dimensions also of the masses, of drift or alluvium, 2 and 3, have been exaggerated, in order to render them sufficiently conspicuous; for, all important as we shall find them to be as geological monuments of t

CROSS THE VALLEY OF

feet thick, rest

l with elephants' bo

viatile loam, 20

l with similar fossil

all 30 fe

out shells (Limon d

t t

resting on the C

lluvium, 2 and 3, but is also posterior to the denudation of those gravels, or to the time when the valley was excavated through them. Underneath the peat is a bed of gravel, a, from 3 to 14 feet thick, which rests on undisturbed Chalk. This gravel was probably formed, in part at least, when the valley was scooped out to its present dep

E VALLEY O

e valley far above Amiens, and below Abbeville as far as the sea. It has already been stated to be in some places 30 feet thick, and is even occasionally more than 30 feet, corresponding in that respect to the Danish mosses before described (Chapter 2). Like them, it belongs to the Recent period; all the embedded mammalia, as well as the shells, being of the same species as those now inhabiting Europe. The b

f Denmark; but unfortunately as yet no special study has been made of the French fauna, like that by which the Danish and Swiss zoologist

uency of stone implements of the Celtic and Gallo-Roman periods, M. Bouche

Stems of the hazel, and nuts of the same, abound; trunks, also, of the oak and walnut. The peat extends to the coast, and is there seen passing under the sand-dunes and below the sea-level. At the mout

toire des Progres"

t at the mouth of the Somme; seeming to indicate that there has been a subsidence of the land and a consequent submerge

getable matter must have taken. A foot in thickness of highly compressed peat, such as is sometimes reached in the bottom of the bogs, is obviously the equivalent in time of a much greater thickness of peat of spongy and loose texture, found near the surface. The workmen who cut peat, or dredge it up from the bottom of swamps and ponds, declare t

ar the river, the peat is often so fluid that heavy substances may sink through it, carried down by their own gravity. In one case, however, M. Boucher de Perthes observed several large flat dishes of Roman pottery, lying in a horizontal position in the peat, the shape of wh

Celtiques" volu

st hesitate before adopting it as a chronometric scale. Yet, by multiplying observations of this kind, and bringing one to be

and duration of summer's heat and winter's cold, as well as diversity in the species of plants which most abound, would cause the peat

y for miles above Abbeville. Yet this vegetable matter is all of supra-marine origin, for where shells occur in it they are all of terrestrial or fluviatile kinds, so that it must have grown above the sea-level when the land was more elevated than now. We have already seen what changes in the relative level of sea and land have occurred in Scotland subseque

n that, whatever be the number of centuries to which they relate, they belong to times posterior to the ancient implement-bearing beds, which we are next to c

PLEISTOCENE PERIOD IN

nor in its organic remains; in all these characters it might be matched by the drift of a hundred other valleys in France or England. Its claim to our peculiar attention is derived

of Man, it will be desirable to begin by satisfying the reader's mind on that point, before inviting him to study the

ts, all of them collected from the drift in the course of the preceding five or six weeks. The two prevailing forms of these tools are represented in the annexed Figures 8 and 9, each of which are half the size of the originals; the first being the spear-headed form, varying in length from six to eight inches; the second, the oval form, which is not unlike some stone implements,

rough, in which state it is fixed into a cleft stick, which serves as a handle. To this it is firmly bound by thin straps of opossum's hide. One of these tool

t a few had their edges more or less fractured or worn, either by use as instr

have served, as Mr. Prestwich has suggested, for cutting holes in the ice both for fishing and for obtaining water, as will be explained in the eighth chapter

MPLEMENT FROM ST.

SPEAR-H

e original, which is

ide

seen e

al ones, in the upper level gravel at St. Acheul, than in any of the lower gravels in the

he portion, for example, between b and c has probably not been altered; the protuberances which are fractured having been broken off by rive

INT IMPLEMENTS FROM T

LE AND

-SHAPED FLINT HAT

ABBEV

nal, which is 5 1/

ying the fluvio-marine

ecent fracture of the

op. This portion of th

black central part bei

ting, the layer whi

aching since the too

er 9 must have been bl

uch a depth must have

exposure to the sun

rwards when it la

TOOL FROM ST. ACH

inches long, an

n not artifi

to shape, and having

hey have been buried in yellow gravel, others have acquired white or

ve come, indicates, says Mr. Prestwich, not only a real derivation from such strata, but also a sojo

al Transactions

. DENDRITES ON SURFACE

ST. ACHEUL,

. a. Natu

Natural size

. d. Natu

agni

iquity when suspicions are entertained of the workmen having forged the hatchets which they offer for sale. The most general test, however, of the genuineness of the implements obtained by purchase is their superficial varnish-like or vitreous gloss, as contrasted with the dull aspect of freshly fractured flints. I also remarked, during each of my three visits to Amie

dge, observes: "For more than twenty years, like others of my craft, I have daily handled stones, whether fashioned by na

eum" July

e oval or almond-shaped kinds, have already been described. The third form (Figure 14) cons

FE OR FLAKE FROM BELO

LIS. MENCHECOU

ion along the line

hirds of th

mity of shape, a correctness of outline, and a sharpness about the c

eologia"

caused to be dug at Abbeville, in sand in contact with the Chalk, and belo

ude implements, many of which may have been rejected as failures, and others struck off as chips in the course of manufacturin

orm a shape. Mr. Evans, in order experimentally to illustrate the process, constructed a stone hammer, by mounting a pebble in a wooden handle, and

e that an antiquary or geologist, who should devote a few weeks to the exploration of such a valley as that of the Somme, would himself be able to detect a single specimen. But few tools were lying on the surface. The rest have been exposed to view by the removal of such a volume of sand, clay, and grav

OSSILS OF THE

obularis, D'Orbigny.

s. c. Part of s

ometimes one or two holes penetrating some way in from the surface, but not extending to the other side. Others, like b, Figure 15, have a large cavity, which has a very artificial aspect. It is impossible to decide whether they have or have not served as personal ornaments, recommended by their globular form, lightness, and by being less destructible than ordinary Chalk. Granting that there were natural cavities in the axis of some of them, it does

re sur des Instrume

1854 pa