JET. 49.] BEDFORD. 165 



elephant and other extinct mammalia in the railway 

 cuttings there, and when visiting it with Evans, after 

 their return from Abbeville in 1859, they fixed on Bed- 

 ford as a likely place to yield implements Mr Evans on 

 a later visit directing Mr Wyatt to turn his particular 

 attention to the Biddenham pit, where the two well- 

 formed flint implements were actually found. This 

 discovery, following on the recognition of flint imple- 

 ments in the valley of the Somme, was corroborative 

 and irresistible evidence in support of the theory of the 

 geological age which Prestwich assigned to primitive 

 man. The prediction of the two enthusiasts having 

 been so literally fulfilled, was a well-earned triumph 

 for both. 



Sir Charles Lyell, in a letter 1 to Sir C. Bunbury, 

 dated 26th April 1861, mentions this visit : "I am laid 

 up for a day or two after an excursion to Bedford with 

 Prestwich and Evans to see a section where a Mr 

 Wyatt, editor of the Bedford provincial newspaper, has 

 just found two hatchets of the true Amiens and Hoxne 

 type. They occurred in a gravel pit at Beddingham 

 [Biddenham], which I visited more than thirty years 

 ago." 



In June our geologist was alone when working out 

 the district round Shelford and Cardington. 



According to a foreign note-book, he was at Chartres 

 on the 26th July, examining the remains of Elephas, 

 Rhinoceros, Hycena, and Cervus in M. Boisvilette's 

 collection, also a species of Hippopotamus which he 

 emphasises as being distinct from H. major. An 

 elaborate section is given of Le Mans. High-level 

 gravel is noted near Caen, and " Drift " in a cutting 

 at Bayeux. From Charenton he went to St Sauveur, 



1 Life and Letters of Sir Charles Lyell, vol. ii. p. 344. 



