Aechæolog Y.

countries , and of clearing up the doubts which had prevailed as to the contemporaneity of those works of human hands with extinct species of elephants and other mammals , is entirely due to Mr . Prcstwich . Having twice carefully examined the several sections in which these implements bad been found by M . de Perthes and by Dr . Rigollet , Mr . Prcstwich embodied the result of his investigations

in a paper which was read before tho lloyal Society in June last , aud which has been since published in the society's proceedings . As this report may not be accessible to many of your readers , and as it is also carefully limited to a detailed and scientific account of the author ' s investigations , some further and more general particulars may perhaps be found interesting to those who take any interest in such subjects .

Shortly after Mr . Prcstwich ' s paper had been read before the Koyal Society I proceeded under his able guidance , and in company with some other members of the Geological Society to Amiens and Abbeville , in order to re-examine the sections in which those implements had been found . Upon our arrival at the pit near Amiens we were met by some little barefooted boys , one of whom accosted me with the politeness peculiar to his nation , — " Monsieur , voulez cons des lungues des chats ? " Although I could form no notion of the use to which these delicacies were to

be applied , I answered , I hops with equal politeness , that I did wish for some of them ; whereupon the lad skipped back to his hut , and soon returned with ten or twelve of the flint celts , which he gladly exchanged for a few sous . Encouraged by this proof that the objects of our search were not far distant , wc set to work with great zeal , although at first with but little success ; however , after labouring for some hours , I succeeded in discovering and

disinterring a very fine and well shaped celt of black flint , eight inches long by four inches wide at the widest part , and tapering to a rounded point about three quarters of an inch in width , so as to bear some rude resemblance to a tongue . This was embedded at the depth of about twenty feet from the surface , in the middle of a compact mass of gravel , composed entirely of chalk flints , much water worn and rolled , and chalk pebbles . Before

discovering it I was obliged to dig into the face or outer surface of the quarry to the depth of about eighteen inches , and to displace several barrow loads of the gravel . The bed of gravel in which it was found is of an average depth of about twenty feet , and forms the capping or summit of a slight elevation , resting immediately upon the chalk . Above this bed occurs a thin bed of coarse white silicious sand , interspersed with sniall rounded chalk pebbles , and varying from six inches to three or four feet in thickness . This sand bed contains numerous

wellpreserved land and freshwater shells of recent species . Resting immediately upon the sand is found a bed of strong reddish loam , six or eight feet in thickness , which has been extensively worked as a brick field ; and on the surface of this bed , at 200 or 300 yards distance from the general pit , and somewhat nearer to the convent of St . Achcul , are the remains of an ancient cemetery . Here a large stone cist is to be seen , standing on the surface , the brick

earth having been cleared away both from above and around it . This cemetery is undoubtedly Roman . AA e procured from it a coin of Claudius in good preservation , and some other Roman coins , together with a bronze finger ring , and part of a fibula . The result of our examination perfectly satisfied us of the accuracy of Mr . Prcstwich ' s conclusions with regard to a fact so interesting alike to the archaeologist and to the geologist . AA e

ourselves found not only two good specimens of the flint celts , or hatchets , but wc brought away upwards of thirty others , taken from the same pit , some of them found at about the same depth as the first , and some three or four feet lower . These were procured without difficulty from the labourers and their children . Mr . 1 ' restwich , also , on the occasion of his first visit alone , and afterwards when in with Mr . Evansbrought twelve

company , away specimens . Numerous others are to be seen in the fine museum of M . Boucher de Perthes , and some are preserved in the museum of Amiens . No one who examines these instruments can doubt that they are the products of human labour and skill . Uncouth as they may appear to those who are accustomed to more finished works , their rudeness is evidently not so much due to any deficiency of intelli

gence in the manufacturers as to the want of iron or some other metal wherewith to work . It may be questioned if any English Workman , who was destitute of all tools but such as he could find strewn on the earth ' s surface , would be able to produce from a unit pebble more useful or more elegant forms than these . Those who are familiar with the figures which arc presented in those flints which are casuall y fractured , will agree , that while it is almost impossible that a single flint should be broken by accident ,

so as to assume the shape iu which these are found , it is altogether incredible that a great number of them should be found collected in a space which is not larger than that occupied by a modern dwelling house . They are all formed upon a certain uniform pattern , as much so as a set of modern knives and forks ; all are worked to a blunt point with a rude cutting edge ou each side , and a sort of boss ou the other extremity , forming a handhold .

The under side is very slightly convex , indeed often almost flat ; aud on the upper side a slight ridge is left , running down tho centre ; and the edges are formed by striking away the flint in splinters from each side , in a direction at right angles with or a little oblique to the axis . There arc usually five or six of these chips on each side of the upper surface , as distinct and regular as the marks of the chisel upon a statue . Almost every specimen is

found to retain a greater or less portion of the original outer surface , but this is invariably left at the thick and not at the pointed extremity . It is , indeed , only retained where it docs not interfere with the shape of the instrument ; in all other cases it is carefully chipped or struck off , finis indicating not only labour but that intelligence which avoids the expenditure of useless labour . There is one peculiarity in these implements which seems to

deserve more notice than it has received . It is evident that they existed in the shape of gravel , or much worn pebbles , before they were fashioned to their present shape . This , indeed , is just what might have been expected , since none but a people destitute of metal would have been content to use such rude instruments as these ; and a people so unprovided would also have been unable to quarry the chalk for the sake of the flint embedded in it , and

would thus have been forced to content themselves with those fragments or blocks which lay scattered upon the surface . If wc examine them closely we shall find that while the manufactured or worked surface of the celts is nearly as sharp and clear as if made yesterday , that portion of the original , or , if we may so call it , the natural surface , which has not been struck off in the course of manufacture , is much worn and exhibits the appearance of havround about the

ing been long " tossed with restless violence pendent globe . " We may also judge of them , as we do of other things , by their companions . The pebbles which are found immediately associated with them , but which have not been worked , arc very much water worn aud rolled some , indeed , arc nearly round ; and all , without exception , have acquired that peculiar worn aspect which long travel ives as well to rocks as to men .

g Nor , indeed , is this change confined to the mere surface ; the interior substance of many of these stones , to the extent of about a quarter of an inch from the outer surface , presents that discoloured appearance which , to a practical eye , denotes the changes which have been produced by mechanical and clvymical forces , probably in operation for long periods of time . If this attrition of the outer surfaceand the discolouration of

, the interior , had been due to the same forces ( whatever they may have been ) which brought the implements themselves into their present position , it is obvious that they also would have been subjected to the common fate , and that thus the sharp edges which ' they still retain would have been much abraded if not entirely obliterated , and the interior would have been partially discoloured . It would thus seem that the forces , by means of which these

things were carried into their present position , were in operation but for a short period ; that the actual condition of the gravel iu which they are found , and from which they are fashioned , was due to some former change or changes , by means of which these masses of flint were torn from their chalk matrix ; and that on this occasion the gravel was merely shifted from some other spot , just as the loose ballast in the hold of a vessel in stormy weather

is rolled from one side to the other . It has been noticed that the quarry is on the summit of a gentle elevation , about 100 feet above the level of the Somme , and , whatever may have been the case before the deposit of the gravel , there is now no high laud in the neig hbourhood from which so large a mass could have slipped . It seems also that this particular bed is but a patch or outlier of the mass of drift of which it orihundred

ginally formed a portion . It crops out a few yards ' distance to the cast , and is not met with again until we arrive at the foot of the hill of St . Roch . It is of course impossible to indicate with any certainty the nature of those forces which brought this gravel bed to its present position ; but if we assume that this change was brought about by the action of water , I would venture to that the wave winch was sufficientl

suggest y powerful to carry into ' its present position this vast mass of gravel and earth would have overwhelmed and destroyed every creature liviii" upon the surface , and the forces of which wc find traces in the subsequent denudation of the sides of the hill could hardly luwe been less destructive . It would seem that wc have thus