202 president's address. 



arenaceous character, and in which mammalian remains are 

 found. On the hills the drift consists of subangular gravel of 

 10 to 20 feet in thickness, covered with beds of fine sand; and in 

 the basement beds of gravel the rude implements are found — 

 M. Perthes, Mr. Prestwich, and Mr. Evans having themselves 

 extracted specimens from perfectly undisturbed formations, at a 

 depth of 11 to 16 feet. Mr. Evans concludes that, at a remote 

 period, possibly before the separation of England from the Con- 

 tinent, this portion of the globe was densely populated by man 

 — that the work of his hands was caught up, together with the 

 bones of the extinct mammals, by the rush of waters through 

 whose agency the gravel beds have been formed. There still re- 

 mains the interesting, but almost insoluble problem, whether we 

 are to carry back the existence of man to the remote period at 

 which these beds are assumed to have been deposited ? or are we 

 rather to suppose that they are not of the antiquity commonly 

 assigned to them ? The following facts seem to attest their 

 assumed antiquity : — They are now found resting on the tops 

 of hills, forming table-lands of considerable elevation. Great 

 changes, therefore, in the earth's surface (and also in the climate), 

 have occurred since they were deposited — changes of which we 

 have no record, and to which we naturally ascribe a remote 

 antiquity. It is in deposits thus circumstanced that the flints, 

 supposed to be the implements of man, are found. Mr. Thomas 

 Wright, however, the eminent antiquary, and others also, dispute 

 their artificial character; and it is asked why, if these flints 

 have been fashioned by man, no human bones — no other relics of 

 our race than these implements — are found associated with 

 them ? With reference to these objections, Mr. Mennell thinks 

 it possible enough that no other works of a rude and barbarous 

 race might come down to us ; but (he says) it does seem strange 

 that no human bones should be found with the flints, in beds 

 which have preserved, entire and uninjured, not only the large 

 and massive bones of the elephant and the rhinoceros, but also 

 the fragile remains of the mouse, the bat, and the shrew. 

 But, though they may be of human origin, and found in the 

 deposits described, the gravel is water-worn — so also are the 



