78 Miscellaneous. 



or summit of a slight elevation of the chalk. A section of this 

 pit, which Mr. Prestwich lately exhibited to the Royal Society 

 showed that the gravel presents here a thickness of about ten 

 feet. Above this occurs a thin bed of coarse, white, silicious sand 

 interspersed with small rounded chalk -pebbles ; and above the 

 sand is a layer of strong loam, of a red colour, which is now ex- 

 tensively worked for the purpose of making bricks. The remains 

 of the elephant horse, and deer have been occasionally found in 

 the gravel ; and we found in the sand which rests upon it an 

 abundance of land and freshwater shells, all of recent species. No 

 fossils of any kind were discovered by us in the brick-earth lying 

 on the surface. At the distance of a few hundred yards from the 

 convent of St. Acheul are the remains of an ancient Romaa ceme- 

 tery. A large stone tomb is here left standing on the surface, 

 the brick-earth having been cleared away from it; and here 

 many Roman coins and bronze ornaments are found. 



At St. Roch, (about half a mile distant from St. Acheul), we 

 also examined a quarry of flint -gravel, of precisely the same char- 

 acter, and apparently of the same period, as that of St. Achuel. 

 We procured from it two very fine tusks of the hippopotamus , 

 which had been found twenty feet from the surface. These were 

 but little rolled or broken, and it seems probable therefore, that the 

 forces that transported [these flint implements to their present 

 position may also have deposited these remains of the hippoj^ota- 

 mus. 



The first discovery of these flint instruments, as well in this 

 quarrv as in other localities in the Valley of the Somme, is due 

 to M. Boucher de Perthes, of Amiens. It was with a view to verify 

 by personal observation the result of his researches that our visi- 

 to St. Acheul and the neighbourhood was undertaken. Mr. 

 Prestwich had, indeed, previously visited the spot, and had emt 

 bodied the result of his researches in a paper which was read 

 before the Royal Society in May last. He had not, however, 

 succeeded in finding one of these implements in situ, although 

 he had procured several of them from the labourers. It was only 

 after labouring for several hours that I succeeded in disinterring 

 the specimen in question. 



The result of our examination perfectly satisfied us, as it had 

 already satisfied Mr. Prestwich, of the frequent occurence of these 

 weapons or implements beneath the beds of loam, sand, and gra- 

 vel which I have described. We not only found two good spe- 



