376 OBJECTS FOUND IN THE PEAT. 



and is extensively worked for fuel. These strata have afforded 

 to the antiquaries of the neighbourhood, and especially to M. 

 Boucher de Perthes, a rich harvest of interesting relics belong- 

 ing to various periods. The depth at which these objects are 

 found has been carefully noted by M. Boucher de Perthes. 



" Prenant," he says, " pour terme moyen du sol de la valle'e, 

 une hauteur de 2 metres audessus du niveau de la Somme, 

 c'est h 30 a 40 centimetres de la surface qu'on rencontre le 

 plus abondamment les traces du moyen-age. Cinquante cen- 

 timetres plus bas, on commence a trouver des debris remains, 

 puis gallo-romains. On continue a suivre ces derniers pendant 

 un metre, c'est a dire jusqu'au niveau de la Sornrne. Apres 

 eux, viennent les vestiges gaulois purs qui descendent sans 

 interruption jusqu'a pres de 2 metres audessous de ce niveau, 

 preuve de la longue habitation de ces peuples dans la valle'e. 

 C'est a un metre plus bas, ou a 4 metres environ audessous 

 de ce merne niveau, qu'on arrive au centre du sol que nous 

 avons nomme Celtique, celui que foulerent les Gaulois primi- 

 tives ou les peuples qui les precederent ;" and which belonged, 

 therefore, to the Neolithic period. It is, however, hardly 

 necessary to add that these thicknesses are only given by 

 M. Boucher de Perthes "comme terme approximatif ;" and in 

 other localities no doubt the growth was more rapid. Mr. 

 Southall* gives instances of more rapid accumulation ; never- 

 theless, without attaching too much importance to M. Boucher 

 de Perthes' calculation, it is obvious that the formation of so 

 great a mass of peat must have required a considerable lapse 

 of time. 



The " Antiquites Celtiques" was published several years 

 before the Swiss archaeologists had made us acquainted with 

 the nature of the Pfahlbauten ; but, from some indications 

 given by M. Boucher de Perthes, it would appear that there 

 must have been, at one time, lake-habitations in the neigh- 

 * Recent Origin of Man, pp. 270, 467. 



