341: ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



ns well as from other considerations, must have inhabited this region of the 

 globe at a period anterior to its so-called Celtic occupation. This difference 

 in form and character from the ordinary types of stone implements, strength- 

 ened the probability of their having been found under entirely different cir- 

 cumstances; and Mr. Evans then proceeded to examine the evidence of 

 their having been really discovered in undisturbed beds of gravel, sand, and 

 clay. He showed, from various circumstances in connection with them, 

 such as their discoloration by contact with ochreous matter, whitening 

 when imbedded in a clayey matrix, and in some instances being incrusted 

 with carbonate of lime, the extreme probabilit}" of their having been depos- 

 ited in these beds at the very time of their formation, inasmuch as the 

 umvrought flints adjacent to them had been affected in a precisely similar 

 manner, and to no greater extent. This discoloration and incrustation of 

 the implements, also proved that they had really been found in the beds out 

 of which they were asserted to have been dug; and their number, and the 

 depth from the surface at which they were found were such, that if they 

 had been buried at any period subsequent to the formation of the drift, 

 some evident traces must have been left of the holes dug for this purpose; 

 but none such have been observed, though many hundreds of the imple- 

 ments had been found dispersed through the mass. But, besides this cir- 

 cumstantial evidence, there was the direct testimony of MM. Boucher de 

 Pcrthes, Rigollot and others, to the fact of these implements having been 

 discovered underneath undisturbed beds of drift, and many of them under 

 the immediate eye of M. de Peithes, Avho, indeed, had been the first to point 

 out the existence of these implements to the workmen. Of the correctness 

 of this testimony, Mr. Evans, when visiting with Mr. Prestwich the gravel 

 pit at St. Achcul near Amiens, had received ocular proof. There, at the 

 depth of eleven feet from the surface, in the face of the bank or wall of 

 gravel, the whole of which, with the exception of the surface soil, had its 

 layers of sand, gravel, and clay entirely undisturbed, was one of these im- 

 plements in situ, with only the edge exposed, the remainder being still firmly 

 imbedded in the gravel. After having photographs taken of it, so as to 

 verify its position, this implement had been exhumed, and was now exhib- 

 ited with other specimens. At a subsequent visit of Mr. Prestwich and 

 some other geologists to the spot, one of the party, by digging into the 

 bank of gravel at a depth of sixteen feet from the surface, had dislodged 

 a remarkably fine weapon of the oval form, the beds above being also in a 

 perfectly undisturbed condition. The inevitable conclusion drawn from these 

 facts was, that M. Boucher de Peithes' assertions were fully substantiated, and 

 that these implements had been deposited among the gravel at the time of 

 the formation of the drift. And this conclusion was corroborated in the 

 most remarkable manner by discoveries which had been made long since in 

 England, but whose bearing upon this question had until the present time 

 been overlooked. In the 13th vol. of the " Archseologia," is an account, by 

 Mr. Frere, in 1797, of the discovery of some flint weapons in Suffolk, in 

 conjunction with elephant remains, at a depth of eleven to twelve feet from 

 the surface, in gravel overlaid by sand and brick-earth, presenting a section 

 extremely analogous with some that might be found near Amiens or Abbe- 

 ville. Some of these weapons are preserved in the Museum of the Society 

 of Antiquaries and in the British Museum, and are identical in form with 

 those found on the Continent. Mr. Prestwich had been to Suffolk, and ver- 

 ified the discoveries recorded by Mr. Frere. Flint implements are still found 



