104 INVESTIGATIONS MADE AT ABBEVILLE AND AMIENS. CHAP. vi. 



fallen from the matrix. I expressed my opinion in favour of 

 the antiquity of the flint tools to the meeting of the British 

 Association at Aberdeen, in the same year.* On my way 

 through Eouen, I stated my convictions on this subject to 

 Mr. George Pouchet, who immediately betook himself to 

 St. Acheul, commissioned by the municipality of Eouen, and 

 did not quit the pits till he had seen one of the hatchets 

 extracted from gravel in its natural position, f 



M. Gaudry also gave the foil owing account of his researches 

 in the same year to the Eoyal Academy of Sciences at Paris. 

 ( The great point was not to leave the workmen for a single 

 instant, and to satisfy oneself by actual inspection, whether 

 the hatchets were found in situ. I caused a deep excavation 

 to be made, and found nine hatchets, most distinctly in situ 

 in the diluvium, associated with teeth of Equus fossilis and a 

 species of Bos, different from any now living, and similar to 

 that of the diluvium and of caverns.'J In 1859, M. Hebert, 

 an original observer of the highest authority, declared to the 

 Geological Society of France that he had, in 1854, or four 

 years before Mr. Prestwich's visit to St. Acheul, seen the 

 sections at Abbeville and Amiens, and had come to the 

 opinion that the hatchets were imbedded in the ' lower di 

 luvium,' and that their origin was as ancient as that of the 

 mammoth and the rhinoceros. M. Desnoyers also made 

 excavations after M. Gaudry, at St. Acheul, in 1859, with the 

 same results. 



After a lively discussion on the subject in England and 

 France, it was remembered, not .only that there were nume 

 rous recorded cases leading to similar conclusions in regard to 

 cavern deposits, but, also, that Mr. Frere had, so long ago as 



* See Proceedings of British Asso- | Comptes rendus, September 26th, 



ciation for 1859. and October 3rd, 1859. 



f Actes du Musee d'Histoire Natu- Bulletin, vol. xvii. p. 18. 



relle de Eouen, 1860, p. 33. 



