338 HUMAN REMAINS NEAR MAESTRICHT. chap. xvi. 



Human Remains in Loess near Maestricht. 



The banks of the Meiise at Maestricht, like those of the 

 Rhine at Bonn and Cologne, are slightly elevated above the 

 level of the alluvial plain. On the right bank of the Meuse, 

 opposite Maestricht, the difference of level is so marked, that 

 a bridge, with many arches, has been constructed to keep up, 

 during the flood season, a communication between the higher 

 parts of the alluvial plain, and the hills or blutfs which 

 bound it. This plain is composed of modern loess, nndistin- 

 guishable in mineral character from that of higher antiquity, 

 before alluded to, and entirely Avithout signs of successive 

 deposition, and devoid of terrestrial or fluviatile shells. It 

 is extensively worked for brick-earth to the depth of about 

 eight feet. The blufls before alluded to often consist of a 

 terrace of gravel, from thirty to forty feet in thickness, covered 

 by an older loess, which is continuous as we ascend the valley 

 to Liege. In the suburbs of that cit}', patches of loess are 

 seen at the height of two hundred feet above the level of 

 the Meuse. The table-land in that region, composed of Car- 

 boniferous and Devonian rocks, is about four hundred and 

 fifty feet high, and is not overspread with loess. 



A terrace of gravel covered with loess has been mentioned 

 as existing on the right bank of the Meuse at Maestricht. 

 Answering to it another is also seen on the left bank below 

 that city, and a promontory of it projecting into the alluvial 

 plain of the Meuse, and approaching to within a hundred yards 

 of the river, was cut through during the excavation of a canal 

 running from Maestricht to ilocht, between the years 1815 

 and 1823. This section occurs at the village of Smeermass, 

 and is about sixty feet deep, the lower forty feet consisting of 

 stratified gravel, and the upper of twenty feet of loess. The 

 number of molai's, tusks, and bones (probably ])arts of entire 



