Of Western Europe. 25 



flints of natural form most resembling them; and the 

 difference between the manufactured and the natural 

 flint was obvious. After years of scientific disdain, one 

 geologist of repute, Dr. Rigollot, of Amiens, visited 

 him, saw at a glance that the collection was of manufac- 

 tured implements, and, returning to Amiens, explored 

 the same stratum there, and found the same objects of 

 stone. 



It was objected that M. Boucher de Perthes might be 

 deceived; that these implements might be given to him 

 by workmen who falsely pretended to find them in situ. 

 He followed the excavations in person, and with his 

 own hands took the hatchets from their beds. It was 

 then objected that they might have sunk through the 

 superincumbent earth to their present position long 

 after the stratum was formed. But the soil was, in its 

 natural state, free from fissure; the implements were 

 diffused all through the drift, were found from eighteen 

 to thirty feet below the surface, and often found under- 

 neath animal fossils. 



But the cave discoveries had not yet become rife, and 

 M. Boucher de Perthes could not yet find credit. In 

 1859 a party of leading English geologists visited him, 

 saw his collection, explored the excavations, found the 

 implements there in situ, published an account of their 

 visit, and the scientific world at length accepted the 

 facts. The same formation was explored where it exists 

 in England, and with the same result. 



Objection still was raised that no human bones had 

 yet been found along with these implements. To this 

 it was answered by Sir Charles Lyell, by Lubbock, and 

 others, that this drift was the deposit of a rapid cur- 



