316 STUDY OF HIGH ANTIQUITY. 



SECTION OF THE CONE OR DELTA OF THE TINIERE. 



R. Roman stratum, at a depth of 4 feet, on tlie southern side. 



B. Bronze-age stratum, 10 feet deep, from 3 to 4 thousand years old. +, spot 

 where a hatchet-knife and a hatchet, both of bronze, were found. 



S. Stone-age stratum, 19 feet deep, from 5 to 7 thousand years old. In it 

 have been found : at a, a bit of pottery ; at h, a human skeleton with a very 

 small, round, and thick skull of the Mongolian or turanian type, (brachycep- 

 halic;) at d, numerous fragments of very rude pottery, much charcoal, and a 

 number of broken bones of quadrupeds. 



A. Central axis of the eone, which cone is cut transversely by the railway. 

 It was here that the torrent flowed in ordinary times, before it had been driven 

 more northwardly by dams. 



C C. Surface of the cone, when the dams were raised. This line is, to a 

 certain degree, ideal ; all the others are such as have been ascertained by direct 

 observation. 



M N . The railway line. 



V. Bridge, serving also as an aqueduct, to carry the torrent over and across 

 the railway. 



P N. Region to which refer exclusively the measurements that have 

 figured in the chronological computation. These measurements, often repeated, 

 were susceptible of being taken here with considerable accuracy; they may be 

 considered as within half an inch of the truth. 



The section has been interrupted in M, because there it becomes indistinct. 

 Its southern end was perfect in every respect. 



Some persons will perhaps infer from the regularity of the cone of the Tiniere, 

 that its rate of growth was irregular. The same persons would doubtless, 

 had the structure of the cone been irregular, have come to the conclusion that 

 the rate of growth had been regular ! Others will probably practice the by no 

 means unusual method of supposing imaginary circumstances, by means of 

 which to invalidate the direct inductions from positive facts. This would be 

 verba, non res, instead of res, non verba. Thus Professor A. Wagner, at Munich, 

 of course without examining the spot, found that the 4 feet of gravel, which 

 cover regularly the Roman stratum, might as v/ell have been deposited in 10 

 or 15 minutes, instead of as many centuries.* It would have been just as 

 ingenious to say that a human being may grow up to manhood iii 30 minutes 

 instead of 30 years ! 



At all events, the author will be delighted to abandon his results as soon as 

 he is shown something better. 



* Sitzungsherichte der Math: Phys: Classe der Akadcmie in MUnchen. 8Ju7ti,lStil, 

 Heft. 11. 



