194 Flint Drift and Human Remains, 



is now recalled to mind, that so long ago as 1833, a M. Schmer- 

 ling had published Researches into the Ossiferous Caverns of Bel- 

 gium, in which, not implements of man only, but his teeth and 

 his bones, and portions of his skull, had been found so thoroughly 

 mixed up with the remains of the lower mammalia as to leave in 

 his mind no doubt, if not of their contemporaneous life, at least 

 of their contemporaneous entombment in the spots where they 

 are now found. These are remarkable facts ; and in so far aa 

 they indicate that the phenomena of Abbeville are closely related 

 to others observed in many different parts of Europe, they go far 

 to prove that the French gravel-beds were due to no mere local 

 cause, but to some diluvial action which was general, and there- 

 fore in all probability due in great part to the waters of the sea. 



I need not point out how many and how interesting are the 

 questions which this discovery raises in our minds. Was this in- 

 cursion of the waters of the sea, over a pre-existing land, sudden 

 and transient, or gradual, and of long duration ? In the Abbeville 

 beds there seems to be clear evidence of four successive stao^es of 

 submergence, each distinguished from the other by different 

 mineral conditions. The first bed, that in which the bones were 

 entombed along with the human implements, indicates an acticn 

 strong, if not violent, but not of long duration. The second indi- 

 cates, by its finer materials, the action of a gentler force. The 

 third seems to be very much a repetition of the first ; whilst the 

 last can only be accounted for on the supposition that fine sedi- 

 ment had time to accumulate in comparatively tranquil waters. 

 The interest of the question is very much centred in the nature of 

 the action which began this series of events. Perhaps it may be 

 well to look at the conclusion come to in respect to the origin of 

 the mammaliferous drift-gravel by the geologist who has devot- 

 ed most special attention to the subject, and before the discoveries 

 of Abbeville had disturbed any preconceived idea. I find Mr. 

 Prestwitch, in a lecture delivered in 1857, coming to this conclusion 

 in respect to the ossiferous gravels of the Thames : — " Taking into 

 consideration the absence of contemporaneous marine remains, 

 and noting the immense mass of but slightly worn debris derived 

 from and covering irregularly the sedimentary deposits ; and the 

 fact that it has evidently been transported from greater or less 

 distances, combined with the occurrence in the gravel of the re- 

 mains of large land-animals, of trees, and of fresh-water land-shells 



